Tuesday 24 November 2015

Brainstorm ideas for short film extract

 I will be working with: Amrit, Katie and Harkiran

Potential topics for narrative:
- Friendships
- Romance
- Modern-noir
- The secret?

Movie image footage as an extract can be potentially:
- Film's opening to establish genre, character and location
- A specific set-piece for example: a family conversation over dinners: a training montage: a chase scene.
- A moment of conflict to show your ability to create emotion/atmosphere/tension/excitement
- scenes that create or communicate a specific emotion such as unease, wonder, suspense, surprise etc.

Ideas:

-  Main protagonist in a dark setting; disturbed.. journey to find out what had happened to them? - scene that create or communicate a specific emotion

- Bullying in today's generation/ troubles facing - films opening scene 

- Unordinary characteristics/movement in the main protagonist; scientist finding out how to resolve or find how this problem came about - A specific set piece. 

- Hidden truths of friendships/ treasures that can have change something special : mission to find it? - scene that create or communicate a specific emotion 

- Media stereotypes are presented during a talk; arguments/conflict scene? - a moment of conflict to show your ability to create emotion/atmosphere/tension/excitement.

Friday 20 November 2015

Preliminary exercise evaluation

 The brief: 
The task was to produce a production that was a minute long for us to understand and how to use the camera within its effects, e.g. changing the brightness on the camera according to the setting you were in or want it to be. We also had to use key element of filming in production: match on action, 180 degree rule and finally shot/reverse shot. We had to use these elements in our narrative. The narrative had to be sense of a person opening the door, crossing a corridor and sitting on a chair opposite to another person and exchanging dialogue with one and other. 

Planning process and pre-production
When it came to the planning, me and my partner we decided we'd work on the planning together which would be easier for us to jot down ideas and use both of our ideas into what we thought we should have in our narrative and techniques to use when doing so; camera work. However at the end we done it separate because my partner was to busy to attend the days we decided to work on. I first done the script, because I felt that that was the most crucial part when it comes down to planning your production because it informs the people on how to play out the narrative and it gives clear directions. I then done the shot list, the shot list became important when we were filming because it was something i always referred back to when shooting because I knew what kind of shot it needed to be at certain scene of the narrative and what camera moment needed be used. Lastly I worked on the storyboard, this allowed me to see the visual look of the film and it allowed me create ideas within by just looking at the storyboard and i made it so both my script and storyboard worked together and matched. The storyboard helped me visualise the narrative before shooting the production. 

Strengths
The opening scene were the most effective for me because at first the camera movement starts of with panning and I am running along side of the camera, i think this is effective because it can create enigma code to the audience as they wonder why the person is running and where too. As we then had the next shot of me running going up the stairs and opening the door, this can be effective because it we had the camera without the tripod and it was a better choice because it allowed the person who was holding the camera to be more free and be as if the audience are going along with the person running. Next shot, a point of view shot of person one still running but through the corridors and the point of view shot is from set from behind, this camera movement was successful because it created an identification with the person and the audience felt like as if they were following the person on their little journey. Another strength I must say is when we were editing, we accidentally deleted one of the scenes but through the editing we managed to still do it right so it made sense of what the narrative is what we were saying to one and other. We had various of shots in our production; medium shot, close up shot and over the shoulder shot. When looking at the phone, we had a over the shoulder shot so you could see the messages clear and the audience could understand what was going on by then and it made the narrative clear I think. 

Weakness
The areas I feel I could have done better in is using the tripod and having other shots then just point of view because I have done a little to much of it. The reason why I believe this is because when you look at the production, it can become boring to see and it doesn't show that you can do a lot by using a camera. This was mainly used when we had the conversation shot, to improve this we could have done 180 degree shot, over the shoulder so it would make the production more interesting and the audience would want to keep watching it. The main areas where I think I could improve at is paying attention to detail. The little details made the production look unprofessional, this was simply as having different clothes on different sense as we shot it on different days it didn't look professional  Also during our conversations, we had the  microphone in the background in the frame which made it look unprofessional and it clearly showed we weren't looking out for the details in our production.  When it comes down to making a production, paying attention to little things comes very important as it can be something that changes your whole production and scene. An area I could have done better was in Mise-en-scene, this is because I believe it could have lifted the performance and the production itself, if I kept the costume  same throughout it would have made the production better and professional. To improve this I could have put make up that was appropriate for the production like powder so it was realistic that I've been running a lot and exhausted, this could have brought the performance to life. 


Tuesday 17 November 2015

Monday 16 November 2015

Film language test learner response

Sirs feedback:   28/48 (C)

www: quite detailed answers (expect question 4) using media terminology.
ebi: re-do question 4

Q4) The editing creates tension and drama from the continuous editing being used, the editing is also slowed paced to help with the tension. They have mainly used straight cuts, this allowed the audience to see the character, and the emotion they were showing to the audience, they also had straight cuts of the surroundings from the different ships to the water and finally at the end there was a straight cut to the buckets in zoom. This is effective because it allows the audience to see the different scenes and create an identification with the surroundings that the characters are in so they feel more connected to the movie.
Thought the editing, the director creates tension and drama to the scene by using continuous editing as they wanted the audience to make the adjustments and links to how they have introduced the characters and they think about them. This allows the audience to have judgement and enigma codes to the audience and make them wonder of what may happen next. This is effective because it allows the audience to make links to has happened and this also makes them interested in to the movie until they see a linear pattern in the narrative.
There is also a eyeliner match from the two characters, from the characters being introduced first to the protagonist who gives the representation of being bad, however as this is not followed by the editing, this raises tension because the audience wants to know who the is is but they are dragged on more into the movie to find out who it is. The slow motion used for the cigarette on the petrol and final shots of flames shooting into the sky, increases tension and emotional impact towards the audience but also to the atmosphere, the non- diegetic music supports the mood on the atmosphere too.
The sense finished with a slow dissolve into the final shot which serves to link the opening scene with  the press conference that follows.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Preliminary exercise

Script and the shot list are in the presentation below:
 


Storyboard: