During one of our media lessons our group and the rest of the class where involved in a continutiy excercise to demonstrate power and status, and we had to show this within a 30 second clip. This excercise was a success and benefitted our group because we had a very short time frame to present and finish filming and editing this exercise which we completed. Resulting this our group realised that we can film in much quicker time scales and can represent people walking across rooms to have power and status through a range of extreme camera angles such as low angle shots for instance. Furthermore, we understood that if we had a range of shots already planned for a specific scene then the likelihood of the scene being completed quicker is of higher possibility as shown in this exercise. We also gained an insight into what shots are most useful to represent people as either inferior or dominant within the frame of the shot.
Tuesday 30 October 2012
Monday 22 October 2012
Testing (Over the shoulder shot)
When discussing potential ideas with the group,the over the shoulder shot was something that became apparent as an essential shot in one way or another. Our group opted to implement this in our media piece. We conducted a few test shots to see whether we were creating the desired effect from shooting the over the shoulder shot.
When viewing what had been shot as an over the shoulder shot, we were pleased with the results and with other viewers providing positive feedback on how it had been shot, we were confident in using an over the shoulder shot.
Testing (Microphone)
We tested the microphone in several environments and in the locations that we had selected for scenes in our movie. We found that particually in restaurants a lot of background sound was present and this was due to other conversations that went on in the room. This hindered the dialogue that actors had to say in our movie and affected the volume of their voice, making it hard to be picked up by the camera. Ouside the same incident was present and this was due to factors such as wind and transport affecting the sensitivity of the microphone. Our group realise when it comes to actual shooting that we will need to over come this constraint. We thus looked at how close the actor has to be towards the mic for relatively clear speech to be present. We tested the actor from a range of distances varying from 3feet all the way to 6feet. Our findings where that from when it got to about 5-6 feet the actors voice became rather quiet and bleneded into the background noise that was around them. However, at 3-4 feet their voice stood out more and was more clearly heard with background noise a minimal problem. This test was useful for us as it meant we could alter shots to overcome background noise and we would know where the actor would have to be positioned to be heard effectively.
Saturday 20 October 2012
Second storyboard
This is the storyboard that we are going to use in our production we need to look at some shots at the end of this storyboard and may need to adjust some of them such as removing the skeleton and the virus part at the start as we may just use establishing shots but nonetheless this is relatively close to what we are going to be shooting.
Location (Jordan's House)
During the creation of our storyline our group realized that we need to find a house to use for one of the scenes in the production. We where lucky to find one of our colleagues in our 6form who was able to provide us with his to use for scene 2 of our production. Scene two included a scene where the protagonist wakes up hence we needed a bed and a room with a decent amount of space to fit our kit in and incorporate unique shots. We found that Jordan's house provided these conventions with great sources of light and room which will be beneficial when it comes to shooting this scene.
Wednesday 17 October 2012
Audience theory
After reading up on various explanations of audience theory, we were able to reach an agreement of which theory we were to follow in order to tailor our production to appeal to our chosen audience.
Our chosen audience was was from 14 years of age to early 20's as we fall between these age groups, we felt we identified more with them and understood what may appeal to them the most. From the theories we read through, Uses and Gratification model was chosen as we believed that our audience would be engaged through atleast one of these three elements;
- To Be Entertained
- In order to identify with others in the situation
- To escape from their daily lives
We understood that our audience would prefer a production that did not feel stationary in its cinematography, we knew that they would be much more engaged with much more dynamic shots and editing which closely resembles the music videos that our age group is exposed/attracted to.
As you can see in this video camera movements are vivid and and dynamic, parts where the camera seems to be stationary effective editing compensates and adds a new dimension to the frame. This is what we believed kept our audience engaged, which we made efforts to include in the production of our media piece.
Decision on storyline
Down to a long and hard discussion the group have decided to go with a storyline that differs from the ideas in other posts. We have decided to go with a storyline where two main gangsters are present and there quest is to find the protagonist who has taken a prized possession from them. The hero has a quest for freedom however he keeps getting hassled by these gangsters as they have found out that he has taken the money from a room where he used to work for them. The protagonist also has a girlfriend who he needs to protect from these gangsters due to the fact that if they don't get what they want they are going to kidnap his girlfriend. Then, one day we whiles on their way out his girlfriend gets taken away while the protagonist has forgotten something. He then travels around the city in his quest to find his girlfriend, until he bumps in to one of these gangsters and gets beaten up and taken away. He gets battered and bruised while his girlfriend watches in a private areas but gets away when the gangster gets a phone call and takes his girlfriend with him. The protagonist still has the package from the gangsters .... until one day he wakes up and finds that the money and his girlfriend are gone. The reason why we have used this storyline is because it is very broad and we can use various amounts of shots to show power,status and meaning with a storyline like this.
Monday 15 October 2012
Genre
The term 'Genre' relates to the categorising of a product especially a product of media i.e Music,Film or Books. They are put into these categories due to their conventions and characteristics and placed in a particular category because of the characteristics that media product has displayed. For example a film that were to have a substantial amount of eerie music and ghosts/apparitions appearing would fall into the genre of 'Horror'. This is due to other films carrying the same traits of that particular were also dubbed as a 'Horror' movie. A flm or media production will be put into a genre through what it contains and what that can be associated with, if a film were to have a killing but the audience do not know who the killer is, that film would be associated with the 'Mystery' genre.
Knowing this, we used it to our advantage as our understanding for genre enabled us to implement certain characteristics and traits from other films to incorparate in our own production, knowing the associations that will be made when the audeience view it. For example we wanted to give our audience the sense of urgency that our character was feeling, therefore we included a kidnapping and some dynamic camera movements to encapsulate the audience in the action of our media production, trying to imitate that of what would be expected in a feature film 'Thriller'.
Knowing this, we used it to our advantage as our understanding for genre enabled us to implement certain characteristics and traits from other films to incorparate in our own production, knowing the associations that will be made when the audeience view it. For example we wanted to give our audience the sense of urgency that our character was feeling, therefore we included a kidnapping and some dynamic camera movements to encapsulate the audience in the action of our media production, trying to imitate that of what would be expected in a feature film 'Thriller'.
Sunday 14 October 2012
Saturday 13 October 2012
Storyboard first draft
This is the first draft of our story board for the first scene, where we
had all gathered bits of our ideas put together but we plan to do many
alterations in the process till we are satisfied.
Friday 12 October 2012
Alternative idea
During our brainstorm activity inside class and discussion outside
school we came up an alternative idea. This idea was a virus that affects
reality, the arises from a social networking site. This virus activates
when a
young school boy decides to disobey orders and browse social networking
sites when he wasn't supposed to, which have severe implications towards
the school. The virus then goes on the dominate the school
infrastructure and affects the boys livelihood as he cannot escape this
virus which haunts everything he browses, with the addition of affecting
the way the school is run in the process. The student has to therefore
destroy the computer to save the school and most of save himself. We had
a problem pursuing this storyline because when we tried to explain it
to others like our media teacher it was very typical. Furthermore, we
wanted to make this storyline more darker so we could add more effects
during the process of editing the media production to eye catch the
audience that will be attracted towards a storyline like this. Moreover,
making this story more darker means we can expand on the types of shots
we want to include in this storyline and create weird angles which will
keep the viewers watching our film. During our groups discussion we
found it very complex of how to make this story darker and create
effective scences to make this film effective, this is why we didn't
move forward with this storyline.
Storyline idea 2
During our brainstorm activity inside class and discussion outside
school we came up with a second idea. This idea was a virus that affects
reality, the arises from a social networking site. This virus activates
when a
young school boy decides to disobey orders and browse social networking
sites when he wasn't supposed to, which have severe implications towards
the school. The virus then goes on the dominate the school
infrastructure and affects the boys livelihood as he cannot escape this
virus which haunts everything he browses, with the addition of affecting
the way the school is run in the process. The student has to therefore
destroy the computer to save the school and most of save himself. We had
a problem pursuing this storyline because when we tried to explain it
to others like our media teacher it was very typical. Furthermore, we
wanted to make this storyline more darker so we could add more effects
during the process of editing the media production to eye catch the
audience that will be attracted towards a storyline like this. Moreover,
making this story more darker means we can expand on the types of shots
we want to include in this storyline and create weird angles which will
keep the viewers watching our film. During our groups discussion we
found it very complex of how to make this story darker and create
effective scenes to make this film effective, this is why we didn't
move forward with this storyline.
Storyline idea 1
Our first idea which the group is a demented story about a boy who has been living out a
worldwide apocalypse (something like a deadly virus outbreak that made
all life cease to exist. Of course with some survivors, for example him)
The film starts of with a (romantic) montage where a guy has developed a close relationship with a girl within science lessons, (the boy could throw a paper ball at her saying something cheeky, this shows the main character and the girl's relationship.) The montage ends when the boy and girl are at the back of the class getting along when she leans in to kiss the main character's cheek.
Just before her lips reaches his cheek the scene changes, the next scene begins with the same person, in worn out clothing, more roughed up waking up. He doesn't realize it was a dream so goes in search of the girl in his dream, we know this because in his hand he has a scrunched up photo of the girl that was in the dream. (The back story of that is she was his high school lover)
Whist the main protagonist is searching different classes another survivor was coincidentally exploring the school and runs into a classroom with the main character hugging his lover.
The survivor asks: 'Are you okay sir?? Are you alive?'
The main character turns around and the girl he was hugging was actually a skeleton. He stands there guarding the skeleton who he still things is his sweetheart.
The survivor with gun pointing at the main character asks him again:
'Sir, are you alive or are you one of them?!'
The main character grabs the weapon still guarding the skeleton
He charges at the survivor, and the film ends with a shot of the survivor closing his eyes
And then a gunshot sound.
The film starts of with a (romantic) montage where a guy has developed a close relationship with a girl within science lessons, (the boy could throw a paper ball at her saying something cheeky, this shows the main character and the girl's relationship.) The montage ends when the boy and girl are at the back of the class getting along when she leans in to kiss the main character's cheek.
Just before her lips reaches his cheek the scene changes, the next scene begins with the same person, in worn out clothing, more roughed up waking up. He doesn't realize it was a dream so goes in search of the girl in his dream, we know this because in his hand he has a scrunched up photo of the girl that was in the dream. (The back story of that is she was his high school lover)
Whist the main protagonist is searching different classes another survivor was coincidentally exploring the school and runs into a classroom with the main character hugging his lover.
The survivor asks: 'Are you okay sir?? Are you alive?'
The main character turns around and the girl he was hugging was actually a skeleton. He stands there guarding the skeleton who he still things is his sweetheart.
The survivor with gun pointing at the main character asks him again:
'Sir, are you alive or are you one of them?!'
The main character grabs the weapon still guarding the skeleton
He charges at the survivor, and the film ends with a shot of the survivor closing his eyes
And then a gunshot sound.
Thursday 11 October 2012
Narrative theory
To look at our storyline more critically we looked a narrative theories which we learn't in our media lesson. Narrative theories refer to the way the story is told in both fictional and non-fictional texts, we looked at theorist Propp and Toderov the help aid our storyline.
Narrative theory 1: Propp
Propp looked at folk tales and saw some structures they shared in common. He found 8 character roles and 31 functions that mvoe the story along. The 8 character roles can also be types of action because they are no the sort of roles whihc appear in the cast list. One character in the film or place can occupy several of his character roles or types of action. These are
1. The villian
2. The hero (not always good byt always carries the story along. the central character and not always male)
3. The doner (who provides an object with some special property)
4. The helper (who helps the hero)
5. The princess (the rewaard for the hero and object of the villan's schemes)
6. Her father (who rewards the hero)
7. The dispatcher (who sends the hero on his way)
8. The false hero
The 31 funcitons includes events such as:
- The heros is prohibited from doing something.
- The villian learns something about the victim
- The villian is punished
And etc.
Narrative theory 2: Todorov
Todorov also saw the underlying structure on narratives
He argues that stories all begin in 'equilibruim' when all forces are in balance. This disrupted by a problem to cause 'disequilibrium' Then more events take place before a 'new equilibrium' is established. Many film makers today don't bother setting up the normal world in order to disrupt it with a problem (a killer shark etc.) and go straight for the problem and disequilibrium. However, there will always be a sense in the film of what life was like before the problem came along and therefore what the characters can return to if they can only sort the problem out.
These narrative theories has given our group and insite of how to plot our story and how to add twists that may be beneficial or detrimental towards the hero. We had also found within our storyline that the characters that we have scouted and the roles we have given to them coincide with Propps character archetypes and functions as the villian does get punished for his actions. Furthermore, we had also noticed that the equilbrium changes when the hero's girlfriend gets kidnapped but a 'new equilbrium' occurs when they become reunited as the story comes to a close.
Wednesday 10 October 2012
Location (The Pizza Factory)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlPwvVDlN0C9MVbrcU3fRit1WgKWWN517fP4LIvZz50KWl1EMvZR2kuO3OYt_lTDuppavSSlmdy85Mn9ik-yFAy56Xl4sif6ZnWrfUJFxrPBAMlTP7-tyLDhtsY4xBqOoL0MVLr_0UA_E/s320/20130201_101455.jpg)
The pizza factory is located at the top of Victoria station and we found this while looking for locations around the area. This location is particually ideal for what we imagined our scene to look like. The lighting is perfect for shooting as its not too dark and not too bright making the room have an essense of natural background light making the scene look more realistic than other locations we have found. The Pizza Factory is further ideal for capturing two-shots and over-the-shoulder shots in the way the seats have been arranged. Our group had further noticed that this location was very similiar to Pulp-Fiction's cafe scene hence the effect of tension with the addition of low key lighting really would add a great effect towards our opening scene.
Location (Marks and Spencers)
During our free periods on a friday our group went around Victoria station to find good locations for our first scene of shooting. Our idea was to shoot a scene in a cafe where the protagonist and his girlfriend would be talking. We knew we needed a location that had space and was assembled in a way which we could work around shots. We found this location in Marks and Spencers to be a good place to shoot due the space around the cafe, meaning we would have space to put the camera and the tripod. However, we found that the way the chairs and tables where assembled werent what we was looking for when we had two-shots in mind therefore we couldn't use this location.
Sunday 7 October 2012
New Camera Vs Old Camera
This year our group has been enabled to use the Canon EOS 7D camera for shooting. This pros of this camera in comparison to last years camera above is that it can shoot up 1080p videos from up to 25 frames per second which is great enhancement from the 720p recording from the previous Panasonic camera. This enables us to create much more detailed shots where all the elements of the setting are in full focus, we wasn't able to use picture of this quality last year and thus the effect of a movie picture was lost because of this. We can also attach various lenses to the Canon EOS 7D camera which is beneficial as we can zoom into areas from a much longer distance than we could before. The lenses that can be attached from this camera can be from 50mm to 125mm which allows the frame and picture to be adjusted based on type of scene we want to film which is a huge improvement from the one and only lens we had avaliable on the previous camera last year. However the disadvantage with the Canon camera is it's microphone is not as good when dialogue is used as the previous Panasonic camera, thus we will have to use an add-on mic which clips on the top of the camera to get a more clearer sound when people are making dialogue. In spite of this overall, we are at a big advantage this year as big blockbuster films have used this exact piece of equipment such as the likes of The Avengers and 127 Hours, putting us a better position in terms of getting a better quality short film than last year.
Friday 5 October 2012
New Kit Vs Old Kit
This is the one of the new pieces of equipment that our group may be using when we start
shooting our new film. In one of our media lessons we where introduce
to this tripod that is used for the Canon T05 7D camera, which our group
may be using for some parts of the shooting during our film production.
The advantage this piece of kit will have towards our group is that it
will keep the camera stable and secure, and with the addition of moving
about in certain angels to create effective camera angels.
In comparison with our old tripod of last year this new tripod above is much more useful as its considerable heavier than the tripod from last year (on the right). This allows the camera to be much more stable in windy conditions during filming. The new tripod can be adjust to higher heights than the previous tripod from last year and can reach lower levels on the ground as well allow high and low angle shots to be generated much easier than last year. However the downfall with the new tripod we are using this year is that it is considerably bigger in size making it impractical to move about during shots and to locations because of its size and weight where as this wasn't a difficulty with the old piece of equipment.
Here is the mono-pod. The mono-pod is a piece of kit that has been
implemented in our media department over the past year. This kit will be
very useful for getting shots from high-angles, as the mono-pod can
extend higher than most pieces of equipment used in the media. Furthermore, this piece of equipment can be useful for over the shoulder shots when people are walking as you can obtain much more stable movements whilst walking with the mono-pod, whereas last year we was restricted from this piece of equipment and had to use the camera handheld which created a much more agitated shot.
Following on from this, this piece of the equipment was introduced to
our media group last year when we was doing our first short two minute
film. We didn't use this piece of equipment as we found it very
confusing, but with a demonstration from our media teacher the group
feels this piece of kit can be useful. The reason for this, is that it
can create very still movements of when someone is walking as this piece
of equipment attaches to your shoulders, enabling walking movements to
take place or jerky movements; for example someone being chased.
Thursday 4 October 2012
In terms of using Taxi driver as inspiration, we're using aspects of its cinematography to implement into our production. The way the camera is mainly fixed on the main character engrossing the audience in the characters world, we found this an interesting element that would make our production more captivating to the audience.
Also small parts of the storyline contributed to our idea as in Taxi Driver the character is under some sort of elusion about the world. We used this as a platform for our idea in making the character confused about what is going on around him
Training Day
In our storyline there is a scene where a car is involved, however me and my partner realized that shots are going to be hard to create in the environment of a car as inside the care is a relatively confined environment. We looked at movies where gangsters where involved and found that Training Day had the most useful shots that will help establish the setting and get good view angles of the characters inside the environment. The shots in Training day vary from low-angle shots to two shots to close-up shots, all these shots me and my partner found would be useful to use in our scene to help show the status of the characters in the situation that there in whilst in the scene.
Drive (2011)
We needed to find inspiration and ideas that linked to our genre of gangsta and mystery. Drive was a perfect movie for our group as it demonstrates mysterious characters with characteristics of a typical gangsta. Our group used the main character in this picture to the left, and used some of his characteristics and implemented it into our villain even though this character is a hero in Drive. We decided to use the conventions of this character in our movie for our villain to add suspense and drama to our short film, as we are trying to portray a mysterious character with psychotic ideas but you never know what he is thinking, thus engaging the audience.
Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs we researched as the main characters where based on typical gangsters to be frank. From watching this film we thought it would be a good idea to dress the gangster's in suits which their hair slicked backwards as it would make the audience perceive them as a typical gangster looking for trouble. The other reason we looked at this film as part of our research is because a part of our idea for this short film was for the protagonist to get kidnapped and put into a room similar to environment where the victim is tied to a chair in Reservoir Dogs. This movie was hence useful to us as we could see how to recreate shots that would add the drama that shown in a similar environment in this film. We therefore found this as a useful piece of research towards our media production as it helped enhance our idea, and showed us how our characters should appear to make them suit the genre we are trying to portray in our media production.
Scream
In our story various phone call scenes take place containing the protagonist and the villain. Me and my partner found Scream to be a useful counterpart in aiding us into how we could do this effectively. We found ways into how we could show emotions of the character due to the words that where said on the other end of the phone, and also found the camera shots that would be useful to show this. Scream furthermore, showed us how to we could the audience can hear the words that are being said on the other end of the phone and backing sound which adds more feeling to whats being said and adds to the tension in what the protagonist is feeling. This movie further illustrated the voice of the other person on the phone, which was very deep and manipulative. Me and my partner knew by having a deep voice it would add the intimidation of the gangsta and would show the power the gangsta has over his enemies, making the protagonist seem vulnerable, which is the effect we are trying to portray.
Wednesday 3 October 2012
Pulp Fiction (1995) And Its Influence
Pulp fiction was another film our group researched. We researched Pulp Fiction initially for mise en scene and camera shots as there were a few ideas that we could incorporate from Pulp Fiction into our short film. The camera shots in the diner which were a mixture of two-shots and over the shoulder shots where something that caught the eye of our group and was an idea we used for our first scene in our media production as we decided to use a cafe as a setting just like Pulp-Fiction. The reason for this was to recreate a postmodern gangsta experience like Pulp-Fiction and is a reason why we also decided to use low key lighting similar to Pulp-Fiction to recreate similar scenes where dialogue takes place in Pulp-Fiction.
Pulp Fiction: Honey Bunny Scene |
Our own rendition of the Honey Bunny Scene |
As fans of Pulp Fiction we knew the effect the suitcase had on the audience.
We felt that it added an element of mystery and further wonder into the goings
on in the film, the very same added element we wanted to include in our own
media production. Therefore in lieu of homage we added a bag with its contents
unknown and our characters driven by there desire for this bag.
Tuesday 2 October 2012
Scouting
When
we was given this task to create a 5 minutes short film we had to scout
for potential candidates that would be suitable for our movie. As we
had to change our storyline we had to scout for a whole new set of
actors that fitted the conventions of our movie. As our short media film
has a hybrid of genres we needed all-round characters that where
enabled to fit the conventions of what we are trying to portray.
The Protagonist
We need a reliable main character for our film who was always readily
available when we needed him. We needed the actor to be male because the
male needed to be involved in a commotion with a gang he used to be in.
The main character needed to have a hard inside but soft exterior, and
had to look relatively frail and vulnerable in comparison to the villain. Luckily within our group we noticed that we had a male that
suited all these conventions and would be suitable for this movie
(Miles). Miles is also a relatively short person, if you compare him to
the other actors, making it easier to portray who is in control in
certain shots in the movie and who power shifts in certain
relationships. We where lucky to find a person that suited these
conventions for our film. Moreover we knew that he had the same timetable as us and was always available to film as he was within our group, not hindering our planning and schedule.
The girlfriend of the protagonist
Finding a actress for our short film was harder to find than finding our
protagonist. This was because within our school environment there are
only a handful of girls and the majority are boys. At first we asked
one girl within our school who we thought would play the part well as we
needed a actress who was obsessed with being pampered and was in
constant concentration about how she looked. We was soon to realize the
she wasn't willing to participate in our film due to other commitments
and a clashing timetable. For this reason, me and my partner had to look
for an actress externally outside the school environment. We where able
to find one and her name is Sophia. Sophia is a friend of Kingsley's my
media partner and she has had experience in filming and using the Canon camera
which was a boost towards creative decisions being made whilst filming. She also has acting skills which can adapt to certain roles we
want the audience to believe whilst watching our short film, making her
perfect for this role.
The villain (Gangsta)
Our group needed a very serious looking male for this role to give the
audience the impression of feeling threatened just like the protagonist
would feel in the movie to engage them into the movie more. We scouted a
potential candidates across the school for this role and we quickly
found a person that had the characteristics of the role of a villain.
Omed is the name of the person that will be playing the villain in our
production he follows what a gangsta villain would portray as he has a
very serious gleam in his eye that would threaten most people. He also
has the build of a gangsta and has his hair slicked back like the
traditional gangstas you would see in movies like Scarface. His
timetable was very much like our groups timetable avoiding any conflicts
and being useful for his availability of when he can film.
Monday 1 October 2012
New Blog
This is a new blog that we have decided to create, we have taken some posts from our old blog and have transferred them to this blog
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