Saturday, 8 May 2010
PRS Clearance
If we were to professionally produce this film for mainstream public viewing then we would have to rite a letter to our local performing rights society for music. Explaining that we would like to use The Cinematic Orchestra - All Things to All Men as part of our soundtrack. In the letter we would say where the video was posted and how that it was appearing on TV if so. They would then set the price baced on their tarrif prices. And that lience woul last a year. The licence covers you to credit the soundtrack on our media and some money from the liences goes as royalties to the performer. And other companies like Film Four would also have to pay towards these royalties if it were to show thw film.
BulletProof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8XDKPCFDs
I am having trouble with blogger! Please visit this link to see fullsized video (As right hand side of the frame is missing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8XDKPCFDs
Evaluation for Final Media Product
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge codes and conventions of real media products?
I believe that after studying the genre of film noir for the past year has lead me to be more aware of the stylistics and characteristics of the noir genre. particularly some of the film openings that we watched for films. They gave me an insight into how other media texts attract and keep the attention of audiences through giving them puzzles to solve called enigmas.
Our production group watched the 'Kill Bill' opening sequence. It only lasted just over a minuet, but from this we could see how simple it was to set the scene of action, Give the audience an enigma to solve throughout the film and build suspense in the film.
Also inspiring me was some of the classic noir films of Sunset Boulevard and DeTour. After watching these film i could see that some of the stylistics used in the soundtrack and editing could really keep the audiences interested in what is happening and feel like they are part of the action. Another genre of film but from the same era of film noir is 'Psycho'. Pictured below is the famous shower scene were the viewer can see a figure enter and approach the main character, but she cannot see. This part builds huge suspense for the viewer and makes them want to scream "look out behind you".
4. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of making this product?
While researching for ideas of noir I used a series of technologies to help aid me in my understanding. I used this blog to express my understanding of what I have learnt. While looking at some classic film noirs I manage to convert the DVD files to digital media and watch them on my iPod. This gave me time to watch and fully understand the convections and codes of different classic noirs. Also YouTube was very helpful in aiding me in discovering other film openings like ‘Kill Bill’ rather than going on the films I have in my collection openings; I was able to search a broader range of film openings and discover new genres that didn’t before appeal to me. And finally Wikipedia was helpful in aiding me in some other people views of the noir genre.
5. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that since completing the preliminary exercise and making this piece I have learnt so much from the simple amateur mistakes that I made. In the preliminary exercise I felt that all that I had to do was point a camera at some people exchanging dialogue. But whilst filming it I found out that it is much more than that. Shooting someone’s face isn’t as simple as pointing the camera at them. It’s all about how you the film maker want the audience to portray that person. Like a close-up may reveal more about that person than a mid shot etc. And when using shots like the mid shot where should you aim to have the character in the frame. Learning about thirds in a frame made me realise that the picture becomes more professional and interesting than having a big blank space above their head. Comparing my progress from the preliminary exercise to the final noir open I have developed my skills as a cinematographer and as an editor. Simple skills I learnt like going over and over the action with the actors made continuity a lot easier than it was in the exchange because it was easier to see the continuity, rather than putting in extra shots to show the ellipsis of time. Also reviewing the video after you have shot a scene with the group made sure that they were happy with how our final piece looked at it wasn’t just one persons input like the exchange was. And in my first edit I spent a lot of the editing time choosing was clips would cut well and match with the next. As time progressed and I started to work on the exchange I found it a lot easier and quicker to match up the continuity of changing shoots. And I was able to use the software to aid me in production rather than to work against me.
At first I found it hard to work as a group but from working together in the final piece I found that combining your ideas with others leads to better results in most cases. Because they further develop your idea to make it even better and more spectacular. And that why our group piece works so well is because everyone in our group felt that it was what they wanted the piece to look like and feel.
But the skill I believe that has developed the most is the skill of building tension for the audience so that they want to watch the media you are producing. Finding the right shoots to fit in with the music to make the music compliment the image on screen makes people enjoy your work and want to watch your media product. I found this in the exchange when people were “wowed” by what we had produced. In the preliminary exercise the video just looked like someone’s home video were you just point the camera at what is happening. But now looking at the final media product I feel that if it were feature length then it would be able to make it as a professional film. Because of the tension building skills I have learned.
I believe that after studying the genre of film noir for the past year has lead me to be more aware of the stylistics and characteristics of the noir genre. particularly some of the film openings that we watched for films. They gave me an insight into how other media texts attract and keep the attention of audiences through giving them puzzles to solve called enigmas.
Our production group watched the 'Kill Bill' opening sequence. It only lasted just over a minuet, but from this we could see how simple it was to set the scene of action, Give the audience an enigma to solve throughout the film and build suspense in the film.
Also inspiring me was some of the classic noir films of Sunset Boulevard and DeTour. After watching these film i could see that some of the stylistics used in the soundtrack and editing could really keep the audiences interested in what is happening and feel like they are part of the action. Another genre of film but from the same era of film noir is 'Psycho'. Pictured below is the famous shower scene were the viewer can see a figure enter and approach the main character, but she cannot see. This part builds huge suspense for the viewer and makes them want to scream "look out behind you".
So I believe that my certain parts of my media product represent the two films mentioned above. As the audience you see the female character go and hide round the corner ready to shoot. But the male character doesn't know this as he walks up to his target. I believe that 'Psycho' inspired our group to want to give that feeling of suspense to the audience like the one in 'Psycho'.
Also 'Kill Bill' inspired our group to want to keep it short and simple. if we threw in massive amounts of clips, shoots music, sound effects etc. Then they would spoil the meaning of the noir. As classic noirs didn't make high budget films. they made low cost films where the narrative and suspense made you interested in them as a viewer.
Our group wanted to challenge most of the codes and conventions of classic noirs. Being in the target audience for our media product we had an understanding of what the audience may expect from a contemporary noir. We wanted a modern setting, one were most people in the target audience would be able to associate to. So we didn't want the film to look black and white like the classic noirs. Also the cloathes we wanted to bring up to date, but still make them have the feel of noir. so we used red for the femme-fatals jacket. and keep the other two male characters in black and white clothing. Our setting created a problem. Modern buildings tend to have a warm feeling to them, the way that light is used in them gives the setting a warm glow. So we looked into some editing techniques that would cool down the images. So that the image appeared modern but had that cool feeling to it.
Also the props used we wanted to signify good and evil. The male character's gun was black and the femme-fatals gun was grey. This was no accident we selected the two guns prior to filming to send an unconscious message of who is good and who is bad in the film.
2. Who would be the audience and how have you attracted/addressed this audience? And how does your media product represent particular social groups?
In the brief we were asked to produce a film with a certification aged at 15 years old. So we looked at the criteria of the BBFC 15 rating so that we would not make a film aimed at 15+ be an 18 certificate. We compiled a questionnaire and handed it out to 10 members of the public. And from their responses we could determine the age group and what sex would go to see a neo-noir. We found that both men and women were interested in a neo-noir thriller aged between 15-30. And we found that in the test screening of our media product that the audience liked the way that the actors looked to be early twenties, which the audience liked as they could associate themselves to as they didn't look to old.
Also our media products' theme and and narrative portrays the characters to fit class 'B' in the social economic grading system. As you you never find out if they are killing someone as a hit man or if its a personal vendetta, in which case the character may fit into a lower grade like 'C1 or C2'.
3. What kind of media institution may distribute your media product and why?
After looking into distribution companies and production companies i found that working title films may distribute our film as in the past their films have consisted of many basic films that have risky target audiences. But each year they have a big impact film that will bring in big revenue. but i also think that a big multi-national company like working titles will not want to risk its money on a very small independent production company like ours. Instead i believe that channel 4 films would be more likely to distribute my film. It has famously distributed 'Trainspotting' Which was a major global success. and is usually willing to fund a low-end budget film like ours. Also we would stand more chance with this distribution company than working titles as channel 4 films like their films to be 'British' which means British actors, British setting and British Production company. Hopefully channel four would screen our media product on their freeview channel 'Film Four'. And i think it would be eligible to play anytime after 8pm. mainly due to that's when the film will get the highest volume of the target audience. 4. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of making this product?
While researching for ideas of noir I used a series of technologies to help aid me in my understanding. I used this blog to express my understanding of what I have learnt. While looking at some classic film noirs I manage to convert the DVD files to digital media and watch them on my iPod. This gave me time to watch and fully understand the convections and codes of different classic noirs. Also YouTube was very helpful in aiding me in discovering other film openings like ‘Kill Bill’ rather than going on the films I have in my collection openings; I was able to search a broader range of film openings and discover new genres that didn’t before appeal to me. And finally Wikipedia was helpful in aiding me in some other people views of the noir genre.
In the planning stage our group needed to keep close contact as each of us was workin on our own subject area. I was looking into editing techniques and researching on how the location will look while its being filmed. In order to make sure that i got the groups input and not just mine i had to regulary inform and speak to my group using MSN Messenger and Facebook to get their input on my idea and if it needs any further devlopment.
Also I used Adobe Photoshop to experiment with some of the typefaces that could be used in the final edit. Once the final edit had been created it had to be compressed down so that it would be able to be uploaded to the internet.
The final the technologies I used were in the production part of my coursework. The level of technology available to me was quite vast. But there was always someone that could tell me how a device worked or could solve my problem. The camera we used to shoot the piece was a Canon HV/DV this was a useful camera as the digital video tape made it easy to capture video onto the computer to edit. The computer that I used was a Mac Pro which made rendering and capturing video superfast and the video and sound quality really high. Whilst shooting we used a 600w key light to help make shadow silhouettes on the walls and making a characters face light and dark. To be able to dolly the camera with the footsteps we had to mount the camera on a skateboard and track the walking action. And where there is a character talking we used a pro microphone attached to a boom on the rifle setting to capture what was happening were the microphone was directed. Finally in the edit we had to put in a voiceover and heavy breathing into the video we did this with two devices a recorder from an iPhone, and then emailed the voice clip to my student email address. And the other was from a Creative Dictaphone that was able to plug into the USB slot and upload the video. The Canon’s DV function meant that the digital video could be extracted super-fast to the Mac using its FireWire port. The software used was called final cut pro which we used to edit our media piece together and is really user friendly and easy to use after a quick demonstration. Also I used Apples garage band to help me find the sound effects I needed to make the gunshot sound realistic. This again was very simple to find the sounds and an export them to a file type that can be use in final cut pro.
5. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that since completing the preliminary exercise and making this piece I have learnt so much from the simple amateur mistakes that I made. In the preliminary exercise I felt that all that I had to do was point a camera at some people exchanging dialogue. But whilst filming it I found out that it is much more than that. Shooting someone’s face isn’t as simple as pointing the camera at them. It’s all about how you the film maker want the audience to portray that person. Like a close-up may reveal more about that person than a mid shot etc. And when using shots like the mid shot where should you aim to have the character in the frame. Learning about thirds in a frame made me realise that the picture becomes more professional and interesting than having a big blank space above their head. Comparing my progress from the preliminary exercise to the final noir open I have developed my skills as a cinematographer and as an editor. Simple skills I learnt like going over and over the action with the actors made continuity a lot easier than it was in the exchange because it was easier to see the continuity, rather than putting in extra shots to show the ellipsis of time. Also reviewing the video after you have shot a scene with the group made sure that they were happy with how our final piece looked at it wasn’t just one persons input like the exchange was. And in my first edit I spent a lot of the editing time choosing was clips would cut well and match with the next. As time progressed and I started to work on the exchange I found it a lot easier and quicker to match up the continuity of changing shoots. And I was able to use the software to aid me in production rather than to work against me.
At first I found it hard to work as a group but from working together in the final piece I found that combining your ideas with others leads to better results in most cases. Because they further develop your idea to make it even better and more spectacular. And that why our group piece works so well is because everyone in our group felt that it was what they wanted the piece to look like and feel.
But the skill I believe that has developed the most is the skill of building tension for the audience so that they want to watch the media you are producing. Finding the right shoots to fit in with the music to make the music compliment the image on screen makes people enjoy your work and want to watch your media product. I found this in the exchange when people were “wowed” by what we had produced. In the preliminary exercise the video just looked like someone’s home video were you just point the camera at what is happening. But now looking at the final media product I feel that if it were feature length then it would be able to make it as a professional film. Because of the tension building skills I have learned.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Pre-Production paperwork and Group Meeting Notes
Meeting 1 Tuesday 23rd February 2010 (Pre-Production)
Today we desided on what groups we were going to be in for our final media production. In our group is Seb Ashington, Emily Stansfield and myself (Martin Osborn).
We got straight down to business and came up with an enitial idea for our piece. We all liked the stylistics of the opening of KILL BILL and the cinematograhpy and editing looks very simple but effective and this is the look we want. Also I mentioned that i liked the neo-noir of Sin City and i would like to used the black and white with a filter on the red so that this will bleed through. so objects like jackets blood and red lazer dots can be clearly seen.
We have also decided our job roles:
Emily - Art Director/ Mise-en-scene
Seb - Cinematographer
Martin - Assistant Cinematographer, Sound
Meeting 2 Tuesday 9th March (Week of shoot)
We have decided that Martin will be take Sebs production ideas and be cinematographer as Seb will be a charater in the video. Also Martin's great editing skills from the exchange will hopeful make our final piece look professional so he will be assistant Editor alongside Seb.
Meeting 4 Tuesday 6th April (Editing)
We have now done all shooting. voive overs for the final pice and started to put together a rough edit. And the lighting in the video doesnt feel cold and grimy. So after speaking to our lecturer he gave us the idea to cool down the colours in the video. This is used in spooks to give the audience the feeling of dark and grimy.
Pre Production paperwork;
In order to be able to film we had to undergo pre-production paperwork. this covers health & safety side to filming our groups paperwork is listed below;
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Today we desided on what groups we were going to be in for our final media production. In our group is Seb Ashington, Emily Stansfield and myself (Martin Osborn).
We got straight down to business and came up with an enitial idea for our piece. We all liked the stylistics of the opening of KILL BILL and the cinematograhpy and editing looks very simple but effective and this is the look we want. Also I mentioned that i liked the neo-noir of Sin City and i would like to used the black and white with a filter on the red so that this will bleed through. so objects like jackets blood and red lazer dots can be clearly seen.
We have also decided our job roles:
Emily - Art Director/ Mise-en-scene
Seb - Cinematographer
Martin - Assistant Cinematographer, Sound
Meeting 2 Tuesday 9th March (Week of shoot)
We have decided that Martin will be take Sebs production ideas and be cinematographer as Seb will be a charater in the video. Also Martin's great editing skills from the exchange will hopeful make our final piece look professional so he will be assistant Editor alongside Seb.
Meeting 4 Tuesday 6th April (Editing)
We have now done all shooting. voive overs for the final pice and started to put together a rough edit. And the lighting in the video doesnt feel cold and grimy. So after speaking to our lecturer he gave us the idea to cool down the colours in the video. This is used in spooks to give the audience the feeling of dark and grimy.
Pre Production paperwork;
In order to be able to film we had to undergo pre-production paperwork. this covers health & safety side to filming our groups paperwork is listed below;
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Finding a Location to film
After we came up with the idea for our neo-noir we needed a location to film it at. we wanted to keep the film as simple as possible. so we decided to shoot the film at the college. As a group we went around the college to find the best spots to shoot.
This is the glass bridge that connects the two sides of the college together after seeing this view we decided to include it in our film as it gives the sense of someone observing the action.
Here is a selection of corridors that we used all seem to have the contrasting feel of light and dark.
The next image was from an ext ream-long shot but as a group we decided it was to far away and didn't build the suspense enough.
And this last image shows the extreme-low angle we wanted to achieve with the footsteps.Still shots from the Final Piece
Before
This is a before and after shot and an example of how we tinted the colour of the film slightly blue. We done this because we felt it would create a cold mood and atmosphere. Whereas the shots before felt too orange and did not hold the effect we wanted.
After
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This still is a close up of the femme fetals feet in a usual costume of high stilettos.
I think it's a good shot because it was cleverly filmed using a camera on a skateboard, it's the type of shot you see in films such as Kill Bill.
This is another shot that i really liked from our piece. its not a shot often used. and the focus settings had to be spot on. We wanted the audience to feel like the gun was being pointed towards them to help bulid to the suspence of the scene. the gun is in a shapre focus and the charaters face is in a fuzzy focus this draws attention away from the face and to the gun.
I like the trasition between these two shots as this really throws off the audience as the person that has just been shot wakes up and there is a voice over.
Again i really like these two shots as the camera is placed as a person who watches the female walk past. it envloves the audience in the action.
Questionaire for Our Neo-noir
Before we could produce a neo-noir we needed to know what interestets our target audience. so we compliled some questionaires to see what our target audience would like to see in a neo-noir.
Sex: Male Female
Sex: 16-20 20+
Do you enjoy violent thriller films i.e. “kill Bill”? Yes No
How often do you watch a movie? Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Yearly
Do you like to have a narrative twist to keep you on your toes? Yes No
Do you prefer a happy ending? Yes No
Do now what a Film Noir is? Yes No
If yes, have you watched if so please specify.
Do you enjoy neo-noir? Yes No
If yes specify which ones you have seen.
Sex: Male Female
Sex: 16-20 20+
Do you enjoy violent thriller films i.e. “kill Bill”? Yes No
How often do you watch a movie? Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Yearly
Do you like to have a narrative twist to keep you on your toes? Yes No
Do you prefer a happy ending? Yes No
Do now what a Film Noir is? Yes No
If yes, have you watched if so please specify.
Do you enjoy neo-noir? Yes No
If yes specify which ones you have seen.
The Exchange Brief
Our next task we were asked to complete was another filming exercise. This time we were asked to take what video, editing and production skills we had learnt from the preliminary exercise and produce another video; this time our brief was: to produce a film of two people exchanging an object. But this time there would be no dialogue unlike the first. But we were allowed to put in a piece of music to help build suspense for the viewer. this would be a trial run at a neo-noir film opening and any mistakes made in this piece would help educate us on our final neo-noir piece of work.
3 Film Openings
Kill Bill - Kill bill opens with very scared heavy breathing diagetic sound. Then a bland and white shot of a woman that appears to have been beaten up appears. In the background you can hear the sound of approaching footsteps. As she tries to compose her breathing the shoot cuts to a tracking close-up of the boots walking down a wooden floor the women charter then looks just off camera to which the audience presumes is the person who has just walked up to her. The character then speaks in a gruffly man voice. And goes to wipe some blood off the face of the woman. Clearly lettered on the face towel is the word Bill. The woman character appears to not want the character to touch her and refuses to speak. Her breathing gets heavier again. The male character then exchanges a few more lines of dialogue before the woman character says “Bill, it’s your ba...by” at which point a loud gunshot is heard and blood splatters across the floor from a headshot at the woman. There are no titles in the scene to tell you any companies or the film title or actors. But the very basic shoots straight away built a massive amount of suspense and present the viewer with a huge enigma for the film.
Shooter – Shooter starts from an extreme long shot and the camera dollies in. As if mounted to a helicopter it then tracks a river downstream at a slow pace the main actors name appears followed by a customises film title. Then various names appear on screen for producers, actors etc. The camera cuts across a meander and looks like it’s going to crash into a cliff but it then tracks up the cliff to the top and very slowly continues forward. Were it focuses on a camouflaged sniper rifle. The shot then cuts 180* to were the camera was where we see the two snipers disguised as bushes. At this point there has been oricestrical music which dies down. And the spotter speaks. The camera then cuts to a POV through a sniper sight.
We then discover that the two are just making conversation to pass time. At which point the camera goes to a US military camp were the viewer is shown hostile forces moving towards a US convoy. This is just in front of the snipers position. The sniper shoots and kills two men and the convoy continues. Then about 5 other enemy vehicles follow the convoy and the sniper has to engage them. The sniper comes under fire. The US camp chooses to leave them there as they are not supposed to be there. An enemy helicopter then shoots at them and the spotter is killed the sniper then does everything he can to shoot the helicopter. And eventually he shoots the rota blade and the helicopter crashes. I feel that this film would appeal to its target audience as although it is different to kill bill it again builds suspense to the viewer, and although the scene is longer than kill bill you still feel a high amount of tension. The time allows the viewer to feel for the two US soldiers. It also gives the viewer a story narrative to go on.
Sin city – the first scene has a title on it called “The Customer is Always Right” the scene opens and a women steps out onto a roof top balcony. A man starts a voice over about what he see and the viewers see him walk out. The two characters exchange dialogue and there is a faint sound of a saxophone in the background which is a non-diagetic sound. This suggests to the audience that there is romance between these two characters. They kiss and a strange style of cinematography is used. Just the main features of the backdrop are highlighted in white. With the two charters everything else is black. The scene looks like an art silhouette. And again we hear the male voiceover. The saxophone is very prominent again here. Then he tells her that he loves her in voice over and explains why he has to do it; as the audience hears a silencer gun shot. The audience feel saddened from what has happened. A long silence is heard as you can hear diagetic raindrops, before the voiceover oh him saying that he will ‘cash her check in the morning’ at which point a strange fade out sound is heard and the camera pans out of the location quite fast and curls around the city towers to reveal the buildings to say – Sin City. Again this is a different genre of film opening and gives the audience a lot of questions and enigmas to think about and answer. Again like shooter we feel for these two characters before we are startled that one of them dies.
So I feel that these three films opening have taught me that for a film opening to be great you must first appeal to your audience. You have to make the opening scene interesting. They will have paid money to see this film and if they don’t think that the film is any good in the first 3 minutes then they are not going to want to watch the rest. In order to keep their attention and make them want to watch the rest of the film I believe that you must give the audience a puzzle/ enigma to solve or think about. This puzzle will make them want to watch the whole film to find out what actually happened and see if their answer was right. To help build this puzzle I believe that suspense must be built up this can be done through the lengths of shot or by the soundtrack. Or even by what’s happening in the narrative. Usually with the suspense the audience will want someone to associate themselves with or even like. So an insight to what the charters like will do this. A voiceover will usually do this. The voice over makes us feel like we are in that charters head and that we know what he or she is thinking.
Shooter – Shooter starts from an extreme long shot and the camera dollies in. As if mounted to a helicopter it then tracks a river downstream at a slow pace the main actors name appears followed by a customises film title. Then various names appear on screen for producers, actors etc. The camera cuts across a meander and looks like it’s going to crash into a cliff but it then tracks up the cliff to the top and very slowly continues forward. Were it focuses on a camouflaged sniper rifle. The shot then cuts 180* to were the camera was where we see the two snipers disguised as bushes. At this point there has been oricestrical music which dies down. And the spotter speaks. The camera then cuts to a POV through a sniper sight.
We then discover that the two are just making conversation to pass time. At which point the camera goes to a US military camp were the viewer is shown hostile forces moving towards a US convoy. This is just in front of the snipers position. The sniper shoots and kills two men and the convoy continues. Then about 5 other enemy vehicles follow the convoy and the sniper has to engage them. The sniper comes under fire. The US camp chooses to leave them there as they are not supposed to be there. An enemy helicopter then shoots at them and the spotter is killed the sniper then does everything he can to shoot the helicopter. And eventually he shoots the rota blade and the helicopter crashes. I feel that this film would appeal to its target audience as although it is different to kill bill it again builds suspense to the viewer, and although the scene is longer than kill bill you still feel a high amount of tension. The time allows the viewer to feel for the two US soldiers. It also gives the viewer a story narrative to go on.
Sin city – the first scene has a title on it called “The Customer is Always Right” the scene opens and a women steps out onto a roof top balcony. A man starts a voice over about what he see and the viewers see him walk out. The two characters exchange dialogue and there is a faint sound of a saxophone in the background which is a non-diagetic sound. This suggests to the audience that there is romance between these two characters. They kiss and a strange style of cinematography is used. Just the main features of the backdrop are highlighted in white. With the two charters everything else is black. The scene looks like an art silhouette. And again we hear the male voiceover. The saxophone is very prominent again here. Then he tells her that he loves her in voice over and explains why he has to do it; as the audience hears a silencer gun shot. The audience feel saddened from what has happened. A long silence is heard as you can hear diagetic raindrops, before the voiceover oh him saying that he will ‘cash her check in the morning’ at which point a strange fade out sound is heard and the camera pans out of the location quite fast and curls around the city towers to reveal the buildings to say – Sin City. Again this is a different genre of film opening and gives the audience a lot of questions and enigmas to think about and answer. Again like shooter we feel for these two characters before we are startled that one of them dies.
So I feel that these three films opening have taught me that for a film opening to be great you must first appeal to your audience. You have to make the opening scene interesting. They will have paid money to see this film and if they don’t think that the film is any good in the first 3 minutes then they are not going to want to watch the rest. In order to keep their attention and make them want to watch the rest of the film I believe that you must give the audience a puzzle/ enigma to solve or think about. This puzzle will make them want to watch the whole film to find out what actually happened and see if their answer was right. To help build this puzzle I believe that suspense must be built up this can be done through the lengths of shot or by the soundtrack. Or even by what’s happening in the narrative. Usually with the suspense the audience will want someone to associate themselves with or even like. So an insight to what the charters like will do this. A voiceover will usually do this. The voice over makes us feel like we are in that charters head and that we know what he or she is thinking.
Evaluation of Exchange
This production task was more challenging than the first preliminary exercise. This time we were asked to take more thought into consideration regarding the environment we would be filming in. To give our productions a feel of noir or even neo-noir. Which type was not specified in the brief. But our group choose to use a neo-noir feel. We had a first group meeting to discuss possible locations to film in. We quickly decided that we would like to use drugs and money as the items being exchanged. This was mainly due to the fact that those two items we felt would appeal to our target audience. We wanted the viewers to see that what the characters were doing was illegal.
After deciding the items we then needed a location that would match the theme of drugs. We went around the group asking each person to show a location that they know and feel that would fit the mise-en-scene of a drug exchange. Each person explained were their locations was and why they felt it was a good place to shoot a drug exchange. It was decided that we would use my location which was situated about 500 metres away from the college. It was a dark alley with old bricks and bunkers in. Most of the brick had moss on it and the location felt really gray and dark which they group liked. But a week before filming one of the groups stumbled across a location near the marina in Ipswich and said it’s perfect for what we want. I really liked what they had found and wasn’t bothered with the change from my location to theirs.
Whilst filming in the location we found some really good locations were cameras could be positioned like fire escapes three stories high. But we were told not to use the location as it did not meet the health and safety requirements to shoot. Also whilst filming we found that some shoots at the marina worked better than the planned story board so we shoot them and included them in the edit. We were also very lucky to have the Suffolk police helicopter fly over our location whilst filming. Again the group felt filming this and putting it in our video would make the audience feel that the characters are doing illegal substances.
The overall task was very successful as we completed all the pre-production paperwork to shoot off the site of the college in time for our filming day. The mise-en-scene was great as the location was what we wanted and we didn’t have to compromise.
The cinematography was also very good, although confined by health and safety we still managed to shoot some really good extreme high and low angle shoots. The only problem with Dutch tilts is its very hard to get the target on the thirds line but I used the knowledge learnt from the mistake in the preliminary exercise and managed to get a really amazing high angle Dutch tilt shot.
The editing also went very well we had very good footage from the cinematography but the continuity didn’t seem to work. We couldn’t accurately show the passing of time. This really made the production value of the piece look really low. But reusing shoots like the police helicopter and a shoot were the character starts walking to the location and gets to the location of the exchange is the same but we used the same clip. Again not having to have to use sound made a vast improvement on my first preliminary piece of work as a boom was not required. The only downside to sound in the piece was the two tracks we used. If we used one sound track (the first one), then the film would have felt a lot more tense. With the second soundtrack in there at the end test audiences said that spoilt the suspense that the first piece had given them.
After deciding the items we then needed a location that would match the theme of drugs. We went around the group asking each person to show a location that they know and feel that would fit the mise-en-scene of a drug exchange. Each person explained were their locations was and why they felt it was a good place to shoot a drug exchange. It was decided that we would use my location which was situated about 500 metres away from the college. It was a dark alley with old bricks and bunkers in. Most of the brick had moss on it and the location felt really gray and dark which they group liked. But a week before filming one of the groups stumbled across a location near the marina in Ipswich and said it’s perfect for what we want. I really liked what they had found and wasn’t bothered with the change from my location to theirs.
Whilst filming in the location we found some really good locations were cameras could be positioned like fire escapes three stories high. But we were told not to use the location as it did not meet the health and safety requirements to shoot. Also whilst filming we found that some shoots at the marina worked better than the planned story board so we shoot them and included them in the edit. We were also very lucky to have the Suffolk police helicopter fly over our location whilst filming. Again the group felt filming this and putting it in our video would make the audience feel that the characters are doing illegal substances.
The overall task was very successful as we completed all the pre-production paperwork to shoot off the site of the college in time for our filming day. The mise-en-scene was great as the location was what we wanted and we didn’t have to compromise.
The cinematography was also very good, although confined by health and safety we still managed to shoot some really good extreme high and low angle shoots. The only problem with Dutch tilts is its very hard to get the target on the thirds line but I used the knowledge learnt from the mistake in the preliminary exercise and managed to get a really amazing high angle Dutch tilt shot.
The editing also went very well we had very good footage from the cinematography but the continuity didn’t seem to work. We couldn’t accurately show the passing of time. This really made the production value of the piece look really low. But reusing shoots like the police helicopter and a shoot were the character starts walking to the location and gets to the location of the exchange is the same but we used the same clip. Again not having to have to use sound made a vast improvement on my first preliminary piece of work as a boom was not required. The only downside to sound in the piece was the two tracks we used. If we used one sound track (the first one), then the film would have felt a lot more tense. With the second soundtrack in there at the end test audiences said that spoilt the suspense that the first piece had given them.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Report On Exchange
Our next task we were asked to complete was another filming exercise. This time we were asked to take what video, editing and production skills we had learnt from the preliminary exercise and produce another video; this time our brief was: to produce a film of two people exchanging an object. But this time there would be no dialogue unlike the first. But we were allowed to put in a piece of music to help build suspense for the viewer.
Evaluation
Our brief was to shoot a short video with someone entering a room and exchanging a few lines of dialog with another character. Taking into mind the skills of basic video production; so continuity editing with Sharpe cuts between shots. And whilst filming the footage the framing must look professional by using the rule of thirds. And checking what is in the frame.
I feel in general our production went very well for our first attempt at film making. Our group fulfilled most of the brief whist shooting trying to get shots in thirds. But in one shot whist a character was walking across the shot from left to right the cinematographer had the character in the right vertical third when they should have been shot in the left vertical. Then after that shoot the cut to the next shoot feels very irregular to the viewer, this is due to the actor changing their body stance in the change of shot when opening the door. Most of the rest of the cinematography is good. The eye line match on the two-shots and shot-reverse-shot is good and meets the upper horizontal third. But some of the over-the-shoulder shots there was dead space between the top of the frame and the top of the actors head. And the sound quality was generally good apart from nearer the end of the clip the boom operator didn’t wrap the microphone wire around the boom so this created an irregular/ unnatural sound in the final piece.
I feel in general our production went very well for our first attempt at film making. Our group fulfilled most of the brief whist shooting trying to get shots in thirds. But in one shot whist a character was walking across the shot from left to right the cinematographer had the character in the right vertical third when they should have been shot in the left vertical. Then after that shoot the cut to the next shoot feels very irregular to the viewer, this is due to the actor changing their body stance in the change of shot when opening the door. Most of the rest of the cinematography is good. The eye line match on the two-shots and shot-reverse-shot is good and meets the upper horizontal third. But some of the over-the-shoulder shots there was dead space between the top of the frame and the top of the actors head. And the sound quality was generally good apart from nearer the end of the clip the boom operator didn’t wrap the microphone wire around the boom so this created an irregular/ unnatural sound in the final piece.
My Noir Synopsis
Simon; A drug dealer trying to get out of illegal drug dealing is forced to shoot a dealer that has failed to pay from a previous shipment of drugs. The police enter the house as Simon escapes out of the back. The police were tipped off that that house had a dealer occupying and dealing from it. The detective knows the dead dealer well (Joey). Then Simon comes on to narrate that all of this could have been prevented and that it was not his fault that he was dealing. Its just the chain of command. And a the film starts with a flash back to him being ‘normal’(not a dealer, just driving around doing normal teenager stuff) it explains what happened two weeks ago..., then one week ago then that day. After the flashback has told it story the film will continue and the audience will be left with a scene were nobody has won. In the flash back he tells the back-story of Tasha who is a beautiful blonde
The film starts with a establishing shot of a housing area with a car in the distance. Before it gets to close there is some off action shots and someone gets out of the car and walks along the main road path and up to the front door of a house and knocks (very assertively). A drugged up man answers and lets him in. a confrontation is started and Simon is forced to kill the dealer. Just as he is exiting the rear of the house the police raid the house from the front. The inspector see him fleeing through the fields after he finds the dead body.
Location: Run-down house that looks like a drug den. And is really untidy and falling apart. Set in a typical run-down council housing estate. This will give the effect to the viewer that people are stuck in their way of life; there social class forces them to deal drugs and no one ever gets out.
Docks – again with the run-down housing estate i would like the docks to feel really cold and grey. The feeling that no one down by the docks is happy with their pay or how they are being treated. I would ideally like their to be run-down abandoned warehouses, so that there are lots of ways to escape and hide.
The film starts with a establishing shot of a housing area with a car in the distance. Before it gets to close there is some off action shots and someone gets out of the car and walks along the main road path and up to the front door of a house and knocks (very assertively). A drugged up man answers and lets him in. a confrontation is started and Simon is forced to kill the dealer. Just as he is exiting the rear of the house the police raid the house from the front. The inspector see him fleeing through the fields after he finds the dead body.
Location: Run-down house that looks like a drug den. And is really untidy and falling apart. Set in a typical run-down council housing estate. This will give the effect to the viewer that people are stuck in their way of life; there social class forces them to deal drugs and no one ever gets out.
Docks – again with the run-down housing estate i would like the docks to feel really cold and grey. The feeling that no one down by the docks is happy with their pay or how they are being treated. I would ideally like their to be run-down abandoned warehouses, so that there are lots of ways to escape and hide.
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