Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from it to the full product?
The most obvious thing i have learnt throughout the process was a basic understanding of how film is made and how long it takes to make a measly few seconds of clip! It takes a significant amount of time to obtain the correct shots and angles that are neccesary to create a good opening sequence. We spent 4 days filming our peice, for a grand total of 2 minutes 1 second of filming, showing how long film makers work on there pieces.
The best thing i would say i have learnt is the ability to obtain create camera shots and angles. In the preliminary these shots were pritty basic with no high skill needed, shots that are included in our opening sequence would have seemed impossible to use back then. I began with a small understanding ranging from basic shots such as mid shot and close up, but through the opening sequence i was able to extend this knowledge with shots such as establishing shot and high angles shot.
The most useful thing i would say i have learnt through this process is the editing aspect. I had no understanding of the editing side to making films beforehand, it all looked way too complicated and boring. But i have found that it can be an exciting apsect to making a film. The editors decide what goes into a film and what doesnt, they basically create the film which is something that excites me. I learnt how to add frames to a piece of film, how to add sound and how to change the colour balance to give shots the edge that you would expect within a genre.
Overall i have learnt a tremendous amount in my time since the prelimary, i was able to adapt and develop on skills i had learned already. This is why the opening sequence task was an incredibly useful thing to do.
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Evaluation Question 6
What have you learnt about technology from the process of producing this product?
There are several new skills and abilities i am able to take away from developing the opening sequence, most of them are to do with technological apects. Obviously the main and most obvious new skill i have develped is the ability to work a camera. I did have a prior knowledge what with filming the preliminary task but the opening sequence demanded much higher quality shots with more difficult angles. This was a great learning experience which i think will aid me in the future if i end up doing something filming related. The best way to learn a skill and develop upon a skill is by going out there and doing it, this is what me and my group did for the opening sequence.
Another key skill which i was able to adapt and learn more skills on since the preliminary task was the editing process. Using the preliminary software 'sony vegas pro' i learnt several new skills such as being able to merge clips together, cropping out pieces of film and most importantly the ability to add a frame. You can see the frame on our piece of film which in my view adds a very eery creepy feel to the piece lending to the thriller genre. Mixed with the editing process was the ability to add a soundtrack to the opening sequence. I learnt how to mix soundtracks together and how to fade in and out of music according to whats happening on screen. Certainly important in our piece when the killer is looking at the knife and only a heartbeat is heard. I was also able to learn how to mute out peices of sound that i did not wish to have heard, but also be able to empathise on sounds i did wish to be heard over the music ( such as kourtney's footsteps'.
Without having learnt these new skills i would not have been able to complete this task, or make it as good as it turned out to be. Its obvious to me that i need to learn and adapt to new technologies that are becoming increasingly available otherwise my skills will become obsolite.
There are several new skills and abilities i am able to take away from developing the opening sequence, most of them are to do with technological apects. Obviously the main and most obvious new skill i have develped is the ability to work a camera. I did have a prior knowledge what with filming the preliminary task but the opening sequence demanded much higher quality shots with more difficult angles. This was a great learning experience which i think will aid me in the future if i end up doing something filming related. The best way to learn a skill and develop upon a skill is by going out there and doing it, this is what me and my group did for the opening sequence.
Another key skill which i was able to adapt and learn more skills on since the preliminary task was the editing process. Using the preliminary software 'sony vegas pro' i learnt several new skills such as being able to merge clips together, cropping out pieces of film and most importantly the ability to add a frame. You can see the frame on our piece of film which in my view adds a very eery creepy feel to the piece lending to the thriller genre. Mixed with the editing process was the ability to add a soundtrack to the opening sequence. I learnt how to mix soundtracks together and how to fade in and out of music according to whats happening on screen. Certainly important in our piece when the killer is looking at the knife and only a heartbeat is heard. I was also able to learn how to mute out peices of sound that i did not wish to have heard, but also be able to empathise on sounds i did wish to be heard over the music ( such as kourtney's footsteps'.
Without having learnt these new skills i would not have been able to complete this task, or make it as good as it turned out to be. Its obvious to me that i need to learn and adapt to new technologies that are becoming increasingly available otherwise my skills will become obsolite.
Monday 3 May 2010
Evaluation Question 5
How did you attract or address your audience?
The best way to attract and address an audience is by getting word of your film out into society and letting it spread like wildfire. You need to make the public aware of your film, which you can do this several ways.
The best way to attract and address an audience is by getting word of your film out into society and letting it spread like wildfire. You need to make the public aware of your film, which you can do this several ways.
A way to alert the public of the upcoming film is by posting news on a social website. Sites like facebook and twitter are becoming increasingly popular within society so can appeal to a wider audience. This is especially true for our media with the main age group of social network site users mostly being teenagers our target audience. To see how our video was recieved and to see whether we attracted our target audience we posted our video on the network site Facebook with the hope to gain a large amount of feedback. We recieved numerous 'likes' of the film and several promosing comments from not only our target age group but from people younger and older! This shows how our product can be universally liked, meaning its popular and will sell well.
During the research stage of our media we found that existing products use Posters and Flyers etc to get word of the film out onto the streets. A poster is very easy, quick and cheap to make so can be made on a mass scale. They can be placed in very key spots so that they will be seen by a large amount of people. The poster needs to obviously make the film look appealing to there target group and to other groups, when one person knows of an upcoming film and it is appealing to them they will tell other people allowing word to spread on its own. Other than attract people to look at it what a good poster should have is reviews of the film by various reputable critics. This allows the audience to trust in the film and lust to see it more boosting sales. Another good thing to include on a poster is if there are any reputable actors involved in the film its best to hae there names boldly on the poster so that it looks attracting to possible viewers.
Another way to advertise a film is through trailers. This is possibly the best way to advertise something what with the huge viewing figures some channels have allowing more people to see it. What a good film trailer does is grab the audience straight away, regularly using catchy music that sticks with the person, and short fast clips making the film look exciting.
Obviously what with us being restricted to only making the opening sequence to a film we were unable to make any of these marketing campaigns but i believe that the thriller genre allows for a wide audience and an appealing campaign.
Evaluation Question 4
Who would be the audience for your Media?
During the process of planning our media product we needed to take into account who we were targetting as the audience of our piece and what age bracket would fit into regulations whilst still allowing it to be a popular product. Due to the genre we were using (Thriller) it was obviously never going to fit into the U to 12 age bracket due to the content involving murder. We needed to weigh up whether it was a 15 or an 18 aged film. The involvement of weapons is obviously something which lends it to being involved in the higher age bracket, the murder at the end furthers this. But due to the lack of any blood and not visually seeing the killing we feel it end up being a 15 certificate film.
Before any film is able to be released the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rate your film based on its contents and give it an age bracket so that it cannot be supplied to anyone below this due to its unsuitablility. These ages range from a U-(universal suitable to anyone) to 18-(only suitable to people over 18yrs and over). This prevents children or any other people that arent suitable seeing films they shouldnt.
I feel that a 15 cetificate for our film would not only be suitable but most beneficial profit wise. Although it does prevent a huge amount of people being able to see the film it is still aimed at teenagers who we were aiming at from the start. It doesnt prevent most teenagers from buying and seeing our product so generates a lot more profit for us than if it was an 18 for example. The main age group for the thriller genre is of the older teenagers, 15 and above so this only makes our product look even more appealing.
During the process of planning our media product we needed to take into account who we were targetting as the audience of our piece and what age bracket would fit into regulations whilst still allowing it to be a popular product. Due to the genre we were using (Thriller) it was obviously never going to fit into the U to 12 age bracket due to the content involving murder. We needed to weigh up whether it was a 15 or an 18 aged film. The involvement of weapons is obviously something which lends it to being involved in the higher age bracket, the murder at the end furthers this. But due to the lack of any blood and not visually seeing the killing we feel it end up being a 15 certificate film.
Before any film is able to be released the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rate your film based on its contents and give it an age bracket so that it cannot be supplied to anyone below this due to its unsuitablility. These ages range from a U-(universal suitable to anyone) to 18-(only suitable to people over 18yrs and over). This prevents children or any other people that arent suitable seeing films they shouldnt.
I feel that a 15 cetificate for our film would not only be suitable but most beneficial profit wise. Although it does prevent a huge amount of people being able to see the film it is still aimed at teenagers who we were aiming at from the start. It doesnt prevent most teenagers from buying and seeing our product so generates a lot more profit for us than if it was an 18 for example. The main age group for the thriller genre is of the older teenagers, 15 and above so this only makes our product look even more appealing.
Evaluation Question 3
What kind of Media Institution might distribute your product and why?
For a media product to stand out in the market it needs to have a reputable institution to distribute the product. There are several major institutions in differant markets around the world, for example the gaming industry is dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The film industry's biggest institution is 20th century fox but there are still huge players that are reputable, such as Film4 and Warner Bros. Undoubtedly then we needed to pick an institution that would do a good job in distibuting our product and make it look appealing, these reputable companies can make or break any film.
We chose Film4 as our institution because it seemed to have so many advantages to it, especially with it being involved with the latest hit film 'Slumdog Millionaire'. It also has its own television channel which would give us the oppurtunity for a lot more air time without having to pay an extreme amount of money. With it being a television channel and our film being amongst the thriller genre it would obviously have to be shown later on at night, this means we can target a specific audience who are more intrerested in our genre of films.
Overall we feel Film4 would be perfect as an institution to distribute our product due to the reputation of the company and the fact that it will give us a larger amount of airtime than any other intitution. Film4 is also involved with several types of films whether they have small or large budgets, and will often have nights that are specificlly aimed at a certain genre so will bring in more viewers. Our film could possibly be involved in a thriller/horror night making our film more popular and gaining us reputation and money.
For a media product to stand out in the market it needs to have a reputable institution to distribute the product. There are several major institutions in differant markets around the world, for example the gaming industry is dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The film industry's biggest institution is 20th century fox but there are still huge players that are reputable, such as Film4 and Warner Bros. Undoubtedly then we needed to pick an institution that would do a good job in distibuting our product and make it look appealing, these reputable companies can make or break any film.
We chose Film4 as our institution because it seemed to have so many advantages to it, especially with it being involved with the latest hit film 'Slumdog Millionaire'. It also has its own television channel which would give us the oppurtunity for a lot more air time without having to pay an extreme amount of money. With it being a television channel and our film being amongst the thriller genre it would obviously have to be shown later on at night, this means we can target a specific audience who are more intrerested in our genre of films.
Overall we feel Film4 would be perfect as an institution to distribute our product due to the reputation of the company and the fact that it will give us a larger amount of airtime than any other intitution. Film4 is also involved with several types of films whether they have small or large budgets, and will often have nights that are specificlly aimed at a certain genre so will bring in more viewers. Our film could possibly be involved in a thriller/horror night making our film more popular and gaining us reputation and money.
Saturday 1 May 2010
Evaluation Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There are a variety of differant social groups which media products are aimed at, teenagers, middle aged, old etc etc. Our product is aimed at mostly teenagers and there are several reasons for this. Firstly the age of the actors is key in determining who your target group is. Our piece is acted out by two 17 year olds so obviously teenagers is the most obvious group to aim for. This means the audience is then able to relate more closely to the characters in the piece of film and this is an idea we held throughout our piece. When we first see kourtney appear on screen it is very obvious she is drunk and has been to a party the night before because of the ripped up clothing. This is something most teenagers do, they go out to party much more than middle aged to older age groups so this allows the audience to question themselves 'could that happen to me' lending to the Thriller genre.
The clothes that Kourtney's wearing are despite being ripped and torn from the night before are in actual fact reasonably middle to upper class. As said before what we wanted to do was make the audience think 'could that happen to me?'. By deviating from the norm in Thriller films and having our characters usual normal teenagers this does just that. We felt that Thrillers nowadays use characters that are too unrealistic thus making it harder for the audience to bond with the piece of film in front of them.
Through research into Thrillers we noticed that there are few times when teenagers are used as the murderers. We wanted to challenge this so thus used myself as the killer. This allowed us to bond better with the audience due to them being able to relate to whats happening in front of them. The killer is a boy with the usual teenage angst, love and the ability to kill. This firmly seals our bond with our target group.
Overall i feel that is was a good group decision to target teenagers and to use teenagers as the characters. It makes the film stand out from others like it.
There are a variety of differant social groups which media products are aimed at, teenagers, middle aged, old etc etc. Our product is aimed at mostly teenagers and there are several reasons for this. Firstly the age of the actors is key in determining who your target group is. Our piece is acted out by two 17 year olds so obviously teenagers is the most obvious group to aim for. This means the audience is then able to relate more closely to the characters in the piece of film and this is an idea we held throughout our piece. When we first see kourtney appear on screen it is very obvious she is drunk and has been to a party the night before because of the ripped up clothing. This is something most teenagers do, they go out to party much more than middle aged to older age groups so this allows the audience to question themselves 'could that happen to me' lending to the Thriller genre.
The clothes that Kourtney's wearing are despite being ripped and torn from the night before are in actual fact reasonably middle to upper class. As said before what we wanted to do was make the audience think 'could that happen to me?'. By deviating from the norm in Thriller films and having our characters usual normal teenagers this does just that. We felt that Thrillers nowadays use characters that are too unrealistic thus making it harder for the audience to bond with the piece of film in front of them.
Through research into Thrillers we noticed that there are few times when teenagers are used as the murderers. We wanted to challenge this so thus used myself as the killer. This allowed us to bond better with the audience due to them being able to relate to whats happening in front of them. The killer is a boy with the usual teenage angst, love and the ability to kill. This firmly seals our bond with our target group.
Overall i feel that is was a good group decision to target teenagers and to use teenagers as the characters. It makes the film stand out from others like it.
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?
Our group followed many conventions used by real film makers by doing a number of the same processes used in real media products. Our preliminary task helped us to decide on a number of shots that we liked and wanted to include in our own piece. Similar to how film makers test out a variety of shots and angles to see which they like best and which fit in with their chosen genre. We did a large amount of background research into our chosen Genre which helped us gain an insight into what type of music and locations to use. Real media products will do similar research so that they do not stray from their chosen genre while shooting. Finally we created a storyboard to finalise good ideas, to see how well shots fit together and to prevent future squabbles within the group. Again something which any media producer will have to do when creating a media product.
In a real media product the opening scene should do a number of things, establish genre, establish setting and introduce main characters. To establish our main charater we used her in our establishing shot so that straight away she is the focal point throughout. The fact that the setting around her was so desolate and abandoned helped create this focus upon her as there is nothing of any interest to look at in the shot. We foreshadowed her impending doom in the sense that she is wearing very tatty ripped up clothes so the audience place a certain amount of pitty on her, mixed with the music and setting of the film the audience know full well something bad will happen around this character. The character of the killer is quite easily recognised what with the dark clothes and weapon in hand. This seemingly follows the usual conventions of a thriller however we challenged some conventions in the way the character moved. Most killers are supposed to be of the same physical ability just not mentally sane, in ours however we gave him almost superhuman ability. When kourtney runs away upon seeing him she never seems to gain any ground away from him despite the fact that he is walking, this shows the killer being almost superhuman. I feel this worked incredibly well and left the audience stunned, making our product stand out from others.
To establish the Setting and Genre of the piece we felt it necessary to include these in our Establishing shot so that the audience can straight away be part of the film. Our establishing shot is a 'long shot' in which we wanted an isolated desolate feel to be seen straight away. To do this we placed the main character Kourtney on her own within the shot with no other human contact and nothing of any other interest. This places the focus upon Kourtney and also establishes the setting. The random building materials and the assortment of bricks and broken wood helped establish this chosen setting. We alsoused music to establish the genre, our music was slow and involved a rather creepy voice lending well to the thriller genre. When the killer is first brought into the film we changed the music from a slow pace to more speeded to amplify the intenseness of the introduction typical of a thriller genre. The genre is firmly put in place by the introduction of the killer due to him being shrouded in mystery wearing dark clothes and holding a knife making it clear to the audience what genre we are trying to achieve.
Overall i feel that we did follow some conventions used in real media products but where necessary challenged others for the better which allowed our piece to stand out amongst others.
Our group followed many conventions used by real film makers by doing a number of the same processes used in real media products. Our preliminary task helped us to decide on a number of shots that we liked and wanted to include in our own piece. Similar to how film makers test out a variety of shots and angles to see which they like best and which fit in with their chosen genre. We did a large amount of background research into our chosen Genre which helped us gain an insight into what type of music and locations to use. Real media products will do similar research so that they do not stray from their chosen genre while shooting. Finally we created a storyboard to finalise good ideas, to see how well shots fit together and to prevent future squabbles within the group. Again something which any media producer will have to do when creating a media product.
In a real media product the opening scene should do a number of things, establish genre, establish setting and introduce main characters. To establish our main charater we used her in our establishing shot so that straight away she is the focal point throughout. The fact that the setting around her was so desolate and abandoned helped create this focus upon her as there is nothing of any interest to look at in the shot. We foreshadowed her impending doom in the sense that she is wearing very tatty ripped up clothes so the audience place a certain amount of pitty on her, mixed with the music and setting of the film the audience know full well something bad will happen around this character. The character of the killer is quite easily recognised what with the dark clothes and weapon in hand. This seemingly follows the usual conventions of a thriller however we challenged some conventions in the way the character moved. Most killers are supposed to be of the same physical ability just not mentally sane, in ours however we gave him almost superhuman ability. When kourtney runs away upon seeing him she never seems to gain any ground away from him despite the fact that he is walking, this shows the killer being almost superhuman. I feel this worked incredibly well and left the audience stunned, making our product stand out from others.
To establish the Setting and Genre of the piece we felt it necessary to include these in our Establishing shot so that the audience can straight away be part of the film. Our establishing shot is a 'long shot' in which we wanted an isolated desolate feel to be seen straight away. To do this we placed the main character Kourtney on her own within the shot with no other human contact and nothing of any other interest. This places the focus upon Kourtney and also establishes the setting. The random building materials and the assortment of bricks and broken wood helped establish this chosen setting. We alsoused music to establish the genre, our music was slow and involved a rather creepy voice lending well to the thriller genre. When the killer is first brought into the film we changed the music from a slow pace to more speeded to amplify the intenseness of the introduction typical of a thriller genre. The genre is firmly put in place by the introduction of the killer due to him being shrouded in mystery wearing dark clothes and holding a knife making it clear to the audience what genre we are trying to achieve.
Overall i feel that we did follow some conventions used in real media products but where necessary challenged others for the better which allowed our piece to stand out amongst others.
Saturday 10 April 2010
The Opening Sequence
When we first began to come up with ideas on what to do for the opening sequence the Thriller genre seemed to come up in ideas more often than any other. This teamed with our extensive research into the Thriller genre that we conducted during the preliminary task seemed to make the decision for us, its going to be a Thriller. Through my own research into the Thriller genre and its sub genre's here is a conclusion of what the Thriller genre consist's of:
Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains. Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome. -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)
After our extensive research was conducted we came by the decision to base it around the sub-genre of a mystery/psychological Thriller.
Ideas
Before even discussing on the location or the actors for our peice we felt it neceesary to come up with the plot first. This way if we think of nothing but what we want to happen it allows us to come up with the greatest ideas without letting locations or anything get in the way, we would make anything work to fit in with our plot. We seemed to have a trend growing within the ideas that we came up with whereby the protagonist is in some sort of chase sequence. We has this idea come up within several differant sub-genre's until eventually we came to the conclusion that the mystery sub genre suited us best. With our sub genre chosen we needed a firm basic plot to choose, considering the chase sequence came up a lot we put together ideas as to why it is a good thing to do. This allowed us to see the good points aswell as the negative points of an idea.
Although a chase sequence doesnt sound particularly challenging to make, we came up with several very good reasons as to why we wanted to do it. Firstly considering it isnt entirely complicated gives us huge oppurtunities for the variety of camera angles and shots that we can use. The plot of the story is able to work around what shots we want to use. By having so many oppurtunities this will help us to create a piece of film that isnt visually boring whilst at the same time is authentic and realistic.
The only negative thing that a chase sequence seemed to deliver was how we werent entirely sure that we would be able to fill the 2 minute quota that we were set at the start without the film begining to get boring and mundane. However our troubles and worries were completely gone when we began to film due to our plot allowing so many camera angles and shots. This makes the peice of film so much more exciting, we were able to fit in as many shots as we wanted which really completed the film.
Actors
With our basic plot starting to take shape we felt it best to confirm what actors we would use to help us gain a better image of what will happen during our film. With Kourteney being a fellow media student aswell as a budding actress we felt it best to choose her because she will know of the seriousness of the film. Kourteney is in the same situation as us in having to make an opening sequence so will act professionally enabling us to get the job done quickly and smoothly. We only needed two actors to play the roles of chaser and the one being chased. Kourtney was decided as the one being chased and the chaser enivitably ended up being me. This we felt was a good thing because we are able to keep the group small enabling us to work much more effieciently aswell as keeping our own ideas within our group. I do also have acting experience with my GCSE in Drama and have acted alongside Kourtney before, this would all add to the effectiveness and helps keep the piece authentic. Now that we had finalized our actors this enabled us to also finalize our plot becuase we were able to visualise what the shots looked like with the actors and how we could work around any flaws.
The Plot
As said before this is a chase sequence along the Mystery Thriller genre involving Kourteny as the person being chased and myself as the 'chaser'. The basic plot which we finalized on went something like this.
Kourtney is drunk wearing ripped up clothes and her face is covered in smudged make up to portray an apparant party/night out the night before. I am following her wearing all black and with my face covered by a plain white mask. I am possibly in love with Kourtney which is the reason for my stalking. Kourtney is a scared person, scared of where she is and who she is. Upon seeing me she runs whilst i walk behind her, she never manages to gain any ground from me which leads me to have a seemingly superhuman existance. After several snazzy camera angles and shots it eventually leads to Kourtney breaking her stilletto and falling on the ground. The shot then focuses on sam coming up from behind her fallen body...
This is the finalized plot which we set ourselves off with to start filming. The seemingly simplistic, basic plot which we ended up on we felt left doors wide open while we were filming to adapt and change things for the better. This is why we never completely finalized on what shots to do, we didnt want to constrict ourselves too much because we felt this would affect the overall authentic feel we were trying to acheive. We discovered that to create a good piece of film you must be willing to change and adapt certain things in the heat of filming, you are definately at your best in making decisions when you are on scene in the heat of the action. This is why our basic plot worked well for our group, the ability to change things without causing problems was excellent and paved the way for more exciting prospects in the film.
Setting
Our setting for the preliminary task was excellent, it was eery which helped the peice become and authentic thriller, it was basically abandoned which helped us in filming because it was easy to set up a film set quickly and it was close to school so we had the ability to film whenever we needed too. We took these excellent neccesaties with us when we went to film our Opening Sequence.
With it being a Thriller genre we needed a place just like the Preliminary task-abandoned and remote. We needed somewhere with a large amount of space but that was also reasonable close to school so the whole group could get there. So where better than old school field which has now become a building site! It was a perfect place to film, it contained old crates and building materials which helped in creating an authentic feel. It had a very large area in which we could film and was actually on school grounds so was as close as we were ever going to get. The only problem that we could see in filming there would be the huge school building that would appear in the background of our shots. However we managed to work around that whilst filming and excluded it via some very clever camera work from our shots.
The only other problem we encountered with our setting was that although isolated from normal school pupils, some sixth formers wanted to come down to the field during there study periods. This to begin with caused problems, we had to ask a group of boys to move there football game from our field to the front field which they werent entirely pleased about. But after a while we managed to work alongside these people and adapt to there needs aswell as ours, moving some people behind trees whilst we were shooting or even including them in reviewing a shot or two. This not only worked around the problem of filming but also gave us an insight into what the public may think of certain shots. Overall the setting we chose worked well for us and as a group we are happy at how it added a certain flair to the piece of film.
Synopsis
'After a night filled with drugs, drink, sex and violence Kourtney finds herself stumbling through an abandoned building site complete with debris, rubble and Sam; a love struck boy with a capability to kill.'
Characterisation
Our piece involves only two characters, me and Kourtney. Kourtney is the female protagonist drunk wearing ripped up clothes and her face is covered in smudged make-up to portray a party/night out the night before. She is the one being chased and it is obvious to the audience she is a party animal who has been involved in violence the night before. Her skirt is torn in several places and twinned with the smudged make-up lend to the authentic feel of the film. She is a mundane ideology which is common in any Thriller. All her clothing is of darker colours to contribute in making the film authentic within our chosen genre. Myself on the other hand is the one doing the chasing. I wear completely black clothing to give nothing away and make me seem to the audience mysterious, lending to the mystery thriller genre of the piece. I wear a white face mask to cover up my identity, this also looks particularly scary to the audience so works well within the genre. We wanted as a group to show my face as little as possible to shroud me in mystery, this challenges the camera work yet also creates good effect in building tension. I am a confused boy who has all the usual teenage angst, love and the capability to kill!
Props
The use of props within film is very important in creating a sense of realism and making the whole thing look authentic. The props we used in our filmmaking involved a Knife and a white face mask. They both helped develop my character as the 'chaser' due to them being considerably thrilling to the audience to see on screen. It also provided a great authentic feel to the film and made it look much less amateur. The knife was used in the final apparant killing of Kourtney and in the suspenseful build up, whilst the face mask was there to shroud my character in mystery.
Risk Assesment
Taking into account the rural building site location we chose to film at we had to keep in mind any possibly dangers that would cause a risk to the group. The first and most obvious risk that was presentd to us involved the knife (pictured above) that i used to portray the murder of kourtney in our opening sequence. To combat any injuries, when the knife was not in use we took extra care in making sure it was placed out of the way so as not to accidentaly cause an injury. The second possible risk came when i filmed kourtney stumbling past whilst standing on top of a large green container. The risk presented to me here was that i could slip and fall, seriously injuring myself. To combat this we told Billy to stand nearby to act if any fall occured. By taking care and being sensible throughout we managed to avoid any fatalities whilst filming our piece. 
Editing
The editing part of our piece seemed to come natrually to all of us involved. When something did not look right we all instantly thought of several good ways to change and adapt our piece until it fitted together beautifully. We used the commonly known editing software 'Sony Vegas Pro' because it was a very simple program to grasp control of whilst still allowing the use of several media effects such as fading and filtering.
Before applying any music to the piece we felt the need to edit everything beforehand and then just work the music around the already edited clips. The reason we did this was to gain a visually pleasing look to the audience without having to adapt it to the music.
During the week we set aside for editing we unfortunately lost all the edited work we had already done mid way through the week. However rather than see this as something bad we took a more positive approach thinking that we now knew exactly how we wanted to edit our film. We saw the second editing as a chance to not only review how we edited it in the first place, but make changes for the better. Overall the unforeseen error that occured really worked for the best as it allowed us to improve the visual flow of our peice. We did seem to enounter several problems whilst editing but as a team we always managed to find ways to combat any situation.
Before editing we had a good 10 minutes of footage so obviously had to cut out a large chunk of the film to fit in with the 2 minute quota. In some cases we had to make tough decisions on which shots to use and which ones to throw away. The first decision we were confronted with came by the shot in which kourtney's heel of her shoe is shown walking towards the camera and stepping over it. I felt that the initial soundtrack of the footsteps added an eery feel to the film, wheras michael felt that the music should be left to flow over the top allowing a smooth sound. We eventually ended up somewhere in the middle, we allowed the music to carry on running but dimmed it down slightly so that the footsteps can be heard. This added very thrilling notes to the soundtrack and maintained a creepy feel to the piece.
Another key decision that had to be made on most clips was whether to shorten them down or not. Some clips went on for a good 30 seconds which we all believed got visually boring for the viewer. We decided to try and include as many differant shots into the piece but have them as short as possible to try and portray the confused state of mind the character of kourtney is in. I feel this worked particularly well linking especially well with the finalised music.
A particularly good decision that we as a group made was to include a faded black screen mid way through the chase sequence and apply a heartbeat noise. Not only did this add an eery feel to the clip but it left the viewer visually wondering what will come up next rather than the normal chase sequence. We realised that when the clip was to resume a fade back into the normal shot we need to make it explode onto the screen so its not an anit-climax. To do this we speeded up a clip and speeded up the music making the shot look like its bursting onto the screen suprising the viewer and foreshadowing kourtney's upcoming end.
After finalising the editing we sat and watched the clip once over to see how well it all flowed and whether we achieved the thriller type genre we were going for. We were incredibly happy at how good it looked but agreed something was missing. The shots just didnt have the edge we were looking for so to combat this we decided on darkening all the shots. The colour balance can be changed from brighter to darker so by darkening the shots it adds an eery feel to the piece, a sense of hopelessness, while also foreshadowing kourtney's impending doom.
Overall im very happy with how we all edited our opening sequence and feel it has been a great success.
Soundtrack
Originally it was decided that Michael was going to make the music for our opening sequence, however through a lack of resources this was not possible. So instead we sat down and decided what music would fit in with the Genre of our peice, whilst still maintaining the mood we were going for. Our eventual decision landed on a band called 'Borgore' who play music along the gorestep genre. This we felt added a sense of urgency when the chasing was taking place, but was also creepy and eery when we needed it to be.
Filming
The filming of our piece seemed to come very naturally to all of our group. We all made great decisions in camera shots and movements that added a great effect to our piece of film. We did however come across several problems that we had to find solutions to overcome.
Although the location of our piece of film did provide with several huge advantages in the filming as mentioned earlier, there was the aspect of the school being on the same grounds which we somehow had to cut out of the shots. Through some careful editing and clever filming techniques i think we managed to cut it out as much as possible and even if the school is shown its not instantly recognisable as a school.
Another problem we faced was how we were not able to film all the shots on one day so had to try and replicate the same weather conditions and keep the props and appearance as similar as possible to the day before. We managed to keep this realism and overcome the problem by looking back on the shots from the day before and replicating the scenario. This all adds to the continuity of the piece.
Storyboard
Here are our storyboard drawings full of shots and angles which we will incorporate into our piece of film. They may seem very basic at first but we felt this didnt limit us in the shots we could include and gave us a reasonable amount of guidance when shooting. I have written the title of each shot and its effects below:
1)
This is our ESTABLISHING SHOT and will be the first shot in our piece. This shot will set the scene of the piece and mixed with the eery music provides the thrilling feel we are trying to achieve. The shot starts by having the camera at the top of the trees and slowly moving it down to head height ready for a drunk kourtney to walk into shot. The height of the trees allows for an almost 'boxed in' effect that will make the audience feel as if they are contained, a thrilling aspect.
2) This second shot will involve the camera being placed on the floor allowing kourtney to walk straight over the top. We did this ON THE FLOOR SHOT to establish kourtney's drunken state and also allow us to get a good close up shot of her heel as she walked over the camera, adding to the effectiveness of the piece.
3) This is a ON THE FLOOR REVERSE SHOT which will provide continuity from the last shot.
4) This picture shows a HIGH ANGLE SHOT which will make Kourtney seem much more vulnerable to the audience possibly foreshadowing something dreadful to come. It also provides an overview of the setting we used to film in.
5) This CLOSE UP shot will further the characters aspects, because of the smeared make-up etc it furthers Kourtney's vulnerable aspect.
6) This is an example of an OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT. This is important as its the first introduction of the apparant 'killer'. Because we were trying to conceal as much of the killers identity as possible the way we portrayed him as dangerous was his dark clothing and carrying of a knife.
7)This is a LONG SHOT which we will use to see kourtney acknowledgement of the killer and the danger she is in, whilst also providing another view of the setting for the audience allowing them to set the scene in their minds.
8) This is another example of an OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT which will be used to portray the first example of the chase. This also allows us to see the film from a differant perspective, that of the killler.
9)This is another example of a CLOSE UP but this time it shows the mysteriousness of the killer from kourtney's viewpoint. This shot follows on from the last one in the sense that in the last shot I was walking and kourtney was running yet i am still close behind lending to me having almost supernatural powers, keeping with the Thriller genre.
10) This is a shot used as a GENERAL OVERVIEW where kourtney is pushed onto a mound.
11) This is a high angle OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT which empathises Kourtney's helpless character with me being the dominant figure in the shot.
12) This is a POINT OF VIEW SHOT which teamed with a red frame made me seem much more inhuman, adding to the Thriller aspect.
13) This is where I have finally chased down Kourtney and basically is the conclusion of the chase. It is another GENERAL OVERVIEW shot which is good as it gives a good overview of the events that are happening before the viewer.
14) This final shot is of me walking away from the murder scene with my mysterious mask in hand. This leaves the audience guessing as to who i could be and why i was wearing the mask in the first place. It is really an anti climax of sorts and leaves the audience wanting to watch more of the film.
By having this storyboard in hand we were able to make decisions without having any conflict within the group. We obviously didnt follow the storyboard exactly and added several shots to the piece but all in all it came in handy in shooting our film.
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Equipment
Here is the equipment we were supplied with to create our preliminary task and our Opening Sequence:
A standard Sony Handicam for filming.
A copy of the sony vegas studio 9.0 which enabled us to edit our peice really quite effectively due to the ablity to add voice overs and music.
Although the equipment we had was very limited in comparison to normal filmmakers, i still feel we managed to develop very effective uses for the equipment that was available.
Friday 12 March 2010
Genre research for Preliminary Task
Thriller is a broad genre that includes numerous sub-genres (explained later). The basic thriller is characterised by fast-paced frequent action and strong protagonist's who must thwart the plans of the better equiped villains. In simple terms its a villain driven plot whereby the Protagonist must overcome many harsh obstacles to defeat his foe. We chose this Genre for our prliminary as it is an extremely flexible type of genre whereby we can adapt it to suit our own ideas etc.
The Thriller genre has numerous sub-genre's some of which include elements of other genre's, these include:
The Thriller genre has numerous sub-genre's some of which include elements of other genre's, these include:
Action thriller: This will often feature some kind of race against the clock, containing lots of violence and action sequences as well as an obvious antagonist. These films usually contain very many props such as explosions, guns and a vast crew of extras as well as 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. Possibly the most notable example of an Action thriller comes with the ‘James Bond’ films.
Crime thriller: This genre offers a thrilling account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. The emphasis is mainly on the criminals in this type of Genre rather than on the policemen themselves and feature more action sequences than any other type of aspect.
Disaster thriller: The conflict in this Thriller sub-genre usually comes from a type of natural disaster such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc.
Drama thriller: This is normally of a slower paced action focusing more on character development rather than kick ass action sequences.
Horror thriller: The main group of characters is put in danger from a usually unrealistic source such as zombies etc who they must destroy to achieve their goal.
Erotic Thriller: The clue is in the name, simply a mix of erotic adult type film mixed in with Thriller.
Psycholoical Thriller: Rather than following the usual gravitas of being a physical conflict, this genre shows confilct mentally and emotionally.
Religious Thriller: The plot is always closely connected with religous beliefs and religous objects are used throughout.
Most Thrillers are made using a combination of the above sub genre's, the most notable of these being the horror sub genre. Due to there being so many sub genre's within Thriller me and my group felt that this would suit us well when it comes to thinking up ideas and creating our opening sequence.
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Location for Preliminary
Afer deciding on the Thriller genre we needed to come up with a suitable location that would not only fit into our chosen genre, but be close enough so we were able to film relatively quickly and simply. Our final decision was to film in the abandoned science block, which as shown above fits in well with the genre and provides a sense of authencity which would make our clip much more realistic. The fact that it was abandoned made the clip seem much more thrilling, the viewer starts to possibly think something bad has happened there, especially seeing as there is still equipment from lessons before. The location was especially good considering there was no background noise, or interferance from any other sources of noise. Finally because the block had been abandoned beforehand we didnt have to sort out any time for people to leave the block, meaning we could film for as long as we wanted. This made our skills in camerawork and in coming up with ideas that much better as we had the time to change and create as much as we wanted.
Saturday 6 March 2010
Variety of shots
We used a large variety of camera shots throughout our preliminary task. Some worked better than others, yet it still helped educate us all in what shots work best in certain situations.
Here are some shots we used and ones which will definately be inlcluded in our final piece:
-Mid shot
The mid shot shows the character in detail, but yet still shows enough for the audience to feel like they are looking at the whole person. This is basically seeing a person "in the flesh" if you were having a normal conversation. This shot is how you would see a character out of your own eyes, so it's a good shot in establishing a character and emphasise features or expressions in large amounts of detail.
-Close up
A close-up frames a person or an object, displaying the most detail of a character or an object, but does not include the wider scene. Moving in to the close up shot can be used by the zoom method on the camera. We used a close up without the zoom capabilities on the camera in our preliminary task because we were advised that it makes the shot look worse especailly with the limited capabilities that the camera's we used had. We used the close up technique when doors are being used, it emphasises the handles and creates tension, something which is key in any thriller.
-Point of View Shot
The clue is in the name here, basically the point of view shot is what the character is looking at from his/her point of view. It is normally done by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction.
-Panning
Panning is a horizontal movement or rotation of the camera. Panning a camera results in a motion similar to that of someone looking from side to side or shaking their head.
-Tracking
A tracking shot is where the camera is mounted on a platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken. Considering we were limited on equipment, we attempted to create this effect by using 1 person filming sitting on a chair, and the other to push the cameraman along. Considering the lack of equipment we had available, the tracking shot came out well. Possibly not quite as well as in the music video for 'Vampire Weekend's' song 'cousins': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e0u11rgd9Q
-Over the Shoulder Shot
A shot where the camera is focused over the shoulder of the character to show where they are moving to and what they are seeing along the way, it is that simple yet incredibly effective. It usually follows an establishing shot which helps the audience place the characters in their setting.
-Shot Reverse Shot
The shot basically shows character 1 looking at character 2, then character 2 looking at character 1, showing the two characters facing in opposite directions looking at each other. This is used to establish a connection between two characters.
It was this variety of shots which helped our preliminary become so effective.
Here are some shots we used and ones which will definately be inlcluded in our final piece:
-Mid shot
The mid shot shows the character in detail, but yet still shows enough for the audience to feel like they are looking at the whole person. This is basically seeing a person "in the flesh" if you were having a normal conversation. This shot is how you would see a character out of your own eyes, so it's a good shot in establishing a character and emphasise features or expressions in large amounts of detail.
-Close up
A close-up frames a person or an object, displaying the most detail of a character or an object, but does not include the wider scene. Moving in to the close up shot can be used by the zoom method on the camera. We used a close up without the zoom capabilities on the camera in our preliminary task because we were advised that it makes the shot look worse especailly with the limited capabilities that the camera's we used had. We used the close up technique when doors are being used, it emphasises the handles and creates tension, something which is key in any thriller.
-Point of View Shot
The clue is in the name here, basically the point of view shot is what the character is looking at from his/her point of view. It is normally done by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction.
-Panning
Panning is a horizontal movement or rotation of the camera. Panning a camera results in a motion similar to that of someone looking from side to side or shaking their head.
-Tracking
A tracking shot is where the camera is mounted on a platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken. Considering we were limited on equipment, we attempted to create this effect by using 1 person filming sitting on a chair, and the other to push the cameraman along. Considering the lack of equipment we had available, the tracking shot came out well. Possibly not quite as well as in the music video for 'Vampire Weekend's' song 'cousins': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e0u11rgd9Q
-Over the Shoulder Shot
A shot where the camera is focused over the shoulder of the character to show where they are moving to and what they are seeing along the way, it is that simple yet incredibly effective. It usually follows an establishing shot which helps the audience place the characters in their setting.
-Shot Reverse Shot
The shot basically shows character 1 looking at character 2, then character 2 looking at character 1, showing the two characters facing in opposite directions looking at each other. This is used to establish a connection between two characters.
It was this variety of shots which helped our preliminary become so effective.
Overview of Preliminary
Throughout the preliminary task the four of us took turns in being the cameraman as it gave us all a chance to create a variety of shots and learn from our own mistakes. We all had our go at editing the final piece which allowed us all to put in some sort of imput. Our decision making was also very good, such as our idea to add music into the piece to create the tension and eerie atmosphere that we were trying to achieve. Nobody made a decision by themselves which i feel was crucial in making our piece of film great, we all pitched in and if we didnt all decide it was the best thing to do, we simply didnt do it. The overall standard of our videa is in my own view, a high quality for beginers such as ourselves. There are a few things that we still need to touch upon (like removing camera equipment out of the shot!) but throughout the preliminary we all gained new skills and bonded well as a team.
The things i feel we need to work on are only very minor but yet can still be crucial in providing a sense of authensicity to our upcoming final piece of film. Firstly characterisation. We did not assign a real authentic role to the two characters. There was no protagonist or antagonist or real basic storyline. So for our real final piece we need to dig deeper into characterisation and find out the best and most suitable clothing etc to put our actors in.
Actors is another key aspect to look at for our final piece. We used two of our group members for the preliminary and neither of them had any experience in acting whatsoever. This can make the piece of film look less authentic and realistic, so we made a group decision to get an actor in for our final peice.
The final thing i feel we need to work on, and again its to do with authenticity, would be to check our setting correctly before shooting. As you can see in our preliminary lying on the floor is a camera stand case! This makes the film look less authentic and makes us look a lot more like amateurs!
The things i feel we need to work on are only very minor but yet can still be crucial in providing a sense of authensicity to our upcoming final piece of film. Firstly characterisation. We did not assign a real authentic role to the two characters. There was no protagonist or antagonist or real basic storyline. So for our real final piece we need to dig deeper into characterisation and find out the best and most suitable clothing etc to put our actors in.
Actors is another key aspect to look at for our final piece. We used two of our group members for the preliminary and neither of them had any experience in acting whatsoever. This can make the piece of film look less authentic and realistic, so we made a group decision to get an actor in for our final peice.
The final thing i feel we need to work on, and again its to do with authenticity, would be to check our setting correctly before shooting. As you can see in our preliminary lying on the floor is a camera stand case! This makes the film look less authentic and makes us look a lot more like amateurs!
Thursday 4 March 2010
Match On Action
Match on Action in simple terms is basically two shots fitted together to make a shot look smoother and appeal more to the audience. An example of Match on Action could be simply a shot of someone kicking a football from the front and from the back then piecing the two together to make the shot look more aesthetically pleasing to the audience.
If this editing technique wasnt done then most shots would look plain and boring with no variation. However it is quite interesting how a simple change in view point can make a piece look so much smoother thus creating an overall better shot. It also allows filmakers to include other aspects within a shot that they were unable to do beforehand with just one shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tchLVE12tk&feature=related - Here is a link to a video showing clever uses of Match on Action.
My particularly favourite shot in this clip comes between 19-21 seconds. This shot really proves the whole concept that Match on Action allows shots to become so much smoother and visually pleasing for the viewer. Without the transition in viewpoint this shot would be simplistic and boring.
If this editing technique wasnt done then most shots would look plain and boring with no variation. However it is quite interesting how a simple change in view point can make a piece look so much smoother thus creating an overall better shot. It also allows filmakers to include other aspects within a shot that they were unable to do beforehand with just one shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tchLVE12tk&feature=related - Here is a link to a video showing clever uses of Match on Action.
My particularly favourite shot in this clip comes between 19-21 seconds. This shot really proves the whole concept that Match on Action allows shots to become so much smoother and visually pleasing for the viewer. Without the transition in viewpoint this shot would be simplistic and boring.
Research Into Opening Sequences
For a few months now, ever since knowing we would be creating our own opening sequence, i have watched and studied as many opening sequences as i could. I did this as i thought it would hopefully help me to gain a clearer picture of what i am required to do, but also to see what big budget directors do with their own opening sequences. My research began by watching the first few minutes of 'The Usual Suspects' 'Dirty Harry' and 'Seven'. Throughout the clips there were several particularly good camera angles and shots that i would like to incorporate into my own piece. After this extensive research this is where we decided as a group to base our preliminary in the 'Thriller' genre.
This shot is my particular favourite from the movie 'The Usual Suspects'. I feel that it creates a sense of urgency and drama, telling a lot to the audience as to whats going to happen next. Possibly a death of some sort or an explosion considering the matches look like a semi explosion already. I am able to take away so much information from An Extreme Close-Up. Clever uses of Mise-en-Scene such as this is something i wish to achieve in mine.
There are a variety of features that need to be considered when producing your own opening sequence, especially one as complicated as a thriller. Through extensive reasearch i am positive in saying that the most important ones to consider are: Setting, Narration, Characterisation, Ideology, Genre, Sound. These are the aspects that i used the most when writing about studied opening sequences. They all in some way, shape or form helped me to grasp and describe what was happening in front of me.
Here is an overall evaluation of these conventions:
- Setting
The setting can make or break any piece of film, the setting needs to straight away establish genre and set the scene and tension for the audience. The classic Thriller setting's are usually in urban city's, this is possibly because of the mysterious colour scheme a city provides. All the buildings are tall and grey, providing mysterious shadows etc. This helps emphasise the thriller genre. The only other colours that may possibly be used within an urban environment would be to foreshadow something to come. For example the colour red is a symbol for love and passion yet also for blood and death. Mix this in an urban environment and what this does is foreshadow either a passionate love scene or a bloody death. The other advantage to an urban environment would be the closeness of the buildings, this provides a dark atmosphere and creates shadows that could possibly have villaineous things within.
-Narration
The narrative side within a thriller is usually seen in first person narrative. This technique means thatg the plot is narrated by one or more characters, who usually refer to themselves as 'I'. This direct involvement with the character bridges the gap with the viewer, meaning the viewer is much more involved with the character and the way his mind works.
-Characterisation
Characterisation play the most vital role in determining from the start the differant characters that will be introduced within the piece of film. Within the Thriller genre possibly the most important aspect to establish straight away is the Protagonist and Antagonist as these are the most vital character roles. Characterisation allows for a specific dress code to establish these roles, the Antagonist will usually be seen in the more dark colours, causing the viewer reaction to be one of suspicion. The Protagonist's will usually be more stylish clothes that make him/her stand out but not in an obvious way. Another way characterisation helps establish these characters is how a seemingly immensely strong Protagonist has a fatal flaw that an Antagonist is able to exploit.
-Ideology
Quite like Characterisation, Ideology within thriller is used to trigger off certain emotions from the viewer towards certain characters in film. An innocent old man will hopefully if done correctly give off the aspect of sympathy. Wheras a crazed psychotic killer will provide negative emotions. This interaction with the audience makes the film that little bit more exciting.
-Genre
Thriller is a broad genre that includes numerous sub-genres (explained later). The basic thriller is characterised by fast-paced frequent action and strong protagonist's who must thwart the plans of the better equiped villains. In simple terms its a villain driven plot whereby the Protagonist must overcome many harsh obstacles to defeat his foe.
-Sound
The norm when it comes to sound in thriller's is usually an eerie, suspenseful type of music. This is used by the director to create suspence and tension, or if the director wants the dialogue to be focused upon more than usual no music will be played whatsoever.
All these conventions help to create a succesful thriller
Wednesday 3 March 2010
NEW YORK BABY!!
Starting from the 3rd of february and ending on the 7th myself and a number of other students from AMVC AS Media Studies went on a rather epic trip to New York City!. In my view the most important reason for the visit (besides the mega shops) was to partake in a Film Masterclass at the Film Academy.
The masterclass which lasted for roughly 4 hours consisted of 3 differant sections all involved with the media industry, these sections were; film-making, acting and editing. My favourite section came with the film-making aspect, i feel that it generally helped improve my skills when working with a camera. My role within the group whilst doing the film-making was to be the cameraman, i volunteered for this position simply because i wanted to get behind that camera!! I am generally a novice when it comes to film-making so when the opportunity aroused to direct and film the way i wanted there was no way i was not going to turn that down.
So with my newly found camera skills and a good group to work with we created a very short clip to basically prove that we had learned a thing or two. Although the equipment we used in the Masterclass would not be available to us in our actual film making back in the UK i still believe i can take away the techniques i learnt and apply them to my own film.
We were also able to edit this short clip and improve our editing skills. Again being a complete novice on Editing this helped me get a basic overview on what skills and equipment is needed to edit a piece of film. The editing aspect of the Masterclass i found to be especially good as it gave me a lot of easy editing techniques to use, whilst gradually expanding into the more advanced stuff. I am now able to fully apply all those skills and help out my group when it comes down to editing our final piece.
The third and final stage with the masterclass came with Acting. Now having done GCSE Drama i know a thing or two about acting so i didnt find this stage as exciting as the other two. It was still just as interesting however as i learnt whats needed to act in front of a camera, a vital aspect to any actor.
Overall then The film making Masterclass was well worth it, i learnt so many new skills that i will be able to apply to my own film. All of the members in my group also went to NYC so this will hopefully improve our overall piece of film.
The media workshop wasnt the only worthwhile thing that happened in our time at the Big City. After all the whole point of the trip was to see differant aspects of the media industry. Possibly the most intriguing thing i learnt whilst at NY was how far editing effects a peice of film. This was especially true when viewing the friends apartment block. Being an avid friends fan i was shocked at how small it was and how much editing and camera angles play in decieving the audience.
A brief tour of the NBC STUDIOS helped me to gain an insight into the various camera angles that are used in television and also the layout of a tv set itself.
Overall i thoroughly enjoyed my time in NYC, it really put the media industry into perspective for me and helped improve my skills in developing a peice of film, whilst at the same time being an absolutely fantastic city and an awesome tourist attraction.
Friday 26 February 2010
The 180 Degree Rule!!
The picture above will help illustrate what the 180 degree rule adds to a piece of film.
In simple terms two characters (or other elements) should always have a left/right relationship with each other. If the camera passes over this imaginary axis that is linking the two subjects, it confuses the audience as the subjects have essentially swapped positions. This is known as crossing the line. It would appear to the audience that the subjects aren’t actually communicating with each other; basically it looks bad and doesn’t flow like it should do.
In our piece of film we used the 180 degree rule in the catching of the keys and also within the passing of dialogue. However rather than leave the camera in one position we felt it would be more effective to enhance the throw and catch of the keys by moving the camera around a little. When experimenting like this it can either work out as a complete success or just end in total failure, I think we as a group made the right decision and feel that it adds a greater depth to the clip.
Experimenting in the preliminary will help our group when it comes to making the final task as it aids in our technical decisions because we have background knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.
Here is a link to an extract of our preliminary involving the 180 degree rule:
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Preliminary Task!!!!
This post is all to do with our PRELIMINARY TASK!
The task that was assigned to us was relatively simple, to produce a 45 second clip which contained an exchanging of dialogue between two characters. The clip needed to have a wide range of camera angles, involve match on action and the 180 degree rule, (all things I will post explanations of later). I believe we were given this preliminary task to help us gain new skills and get familiar with the camera’s and the software we would be using in the upcoming months.
First off we needed to form a group; I chose to go into a group of 4 containing all people I felt were trustworthy and hard working. The group being Michael Casson, Robert Schwarz, Billy Nairn and Myself. We all sat down and gathered our ideas together, the easiest way to do this was to create a quick spider diagram. After removing the ideas that were deemed impossible to do with the equipment available we were left with a clip loosely based around the mystery/thriller genre.
Once we had arrived at the decision for the clip to be a mystery/thriller genre we had to come up with a location in which to shoot the clip. The location needed to fit in well with the chosen genre so we needed a place that would seem sort of creepy yet have the required resources that we need to shoot a good clip i.e. lighting etc. After much thought we decided on the old science corridor, which is no longer in use, this seem to fit in well with our chosen needs. Here is a picture of our chosen location:
Before we set about filming we decided on making a story board showing step -by -step shots which we could piece together and create our clip, here is a picture of our story board:
The task that was assigned to us was relatively simple, to produce a 45 second clip which contained an exchanging of dialogue between two characters. The clip needed to have a wide range of camera angles, involve match on action and the 180 degree rule, (all things I will post explanations of later). I believe we were given this preliminary task to help us gain new skills and get familiar with the camera’s and the software we would be using in the upcoming months.
First off we needed to form a group; I chose to go into a group of 4 containing all people I felt were trustworthy and hard working. The group being Michael Casson, Robert Schwarz, Billy Nairn and Myself. We all sat down and gathered our ideas together, the easiest way to do this was to create a quick spider diagram. After removing the ideas that were deemed impossible to do with the equipment available we were left with a clip loosely based around the mystery/thriller genre.
Once we had arrived at the decision for the clip to be a mystery/thriller genre we had to come up with a location in which to shoot the clip. The location needed to fit in well with the chosen genre so we needed a place that would seem sort of creepy yet have the required resources that we need to shoot a good clip i.e. lighting etc. After much thought we decided on the old science corridor, which is no longer in use, this seem to fit in well with our chosen needs. Here is a picture of our chosen location:
Before we set about filming we decided on making a story board showing step -by -step shots which we could piece together and create our clip, here is a picture of our story board:
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