Stroy board and Shot list

Story board and Shot list

To help us direct and vision our opening sequence we have made a story board and a camera placement plan to help us decide where we are going to place the camera and and how we are going to film the shot.

The story board will be used to help us visualize the scene and what and who is going to be in the scene. The story board will also be used to ruffly estimate how long the shot is going to be. (for example shot 1 is 8 seconds) 

First sequence

Second sequence

Third sequence

The camera placement plan will be used to help us choose where we are going to place the camera when we are on location. It will also help us angle where the camera will move and turn for pans and tilts.

First pre-Production Meeting

First Pre-Production Meeting

In our first meeting we discussed what we needed to do and who was going to do it . Abel was set the task of finding a location and looking a what costumes we were going to need, Victor was set the task to make the screen play and look for suitable actors for our opening sequence. I as set the task to look for props and discuss what shots were going to use in the opening sequence.

Location 

The ideal location were looking for was an abandoned street and derelict buildings this would give our opening sequence a unnerving atmosphere. we also discussed a secondary location which we decided that it was going to be a forest with a small camp site (2-3 small tents and a camp fire partially extinguished). After some searching Abel came across an abandoned sewage plant behind the turnpike in Yarnton, this will be perfect as a location as it creates the perfect mood and atmosphere that we want.

Costume

The costume we were looking for is something quite casual but slightly dirty and ripped which would give it a survival-esk  look and to authenticate the look add some survival gear like gas mask, rope, drinks bottle, carabineers etc. 

Presentation

 Presentation

For this lesson we were asked to make a presentation on where we were going to film, what soundtrack we were planning on using, what props we were going to use and we also had to make a picture board which is a slide with a few pictures and words (similar to a college) this is supposed to show the type of feeling that your opening wants to give the audience. in our case we wanted the audience to feel unsettled and uneasy which and we also wanted them to feel like something is not right and that something is wrong but not till its to late. with this presentation we also had to show what actors we would like to be in our opening but not actually use.

Actors
The actors that we wanted to use were Denzel Washington because of his performance in the book of eli as this film is very similar to what feeling we want to get across and he helps this feeling get across.



 Angelina jolie because of her performance in the Lara croft films as she portrays a similar character to what we want in our opening scene as she portrays a tough, strong willed woman who can survive.



 Over all for the characters we are looking for is a normal looking person trying to survive in a un-survive-able world. We also had had to explain what treatment we were going to give our film in our case we are going to give the opening a miserable atmosphere and also make the audience feel like something is not right.

Music
The music that we want for our opening sequence need to start quiet and slowly build up and as it goes on gets more and more tense.


  

Recreating a movie clip

Recreating a movie clip

To show our skills at filming we were set a task to try and recreate a movie clip. the clip we chose as a group was a clip from the film seven (se7en) of which this was our first set task to film a scene.

Before we filmed the scene we had to story board the scenes we were going to do of which we had to draw a picture of the scene itself then say how long it was going to be and then what type of shot and movement it was(cope of our story board below)


After that we had to go out and film our scene. while filming this we did not have to focus on the setting or clothing just the shots and movements of the camera and actors. we did this to get an idea of how to film and what techniques we had to learn to get the best out of our camera.
Once the filming was finished we went and edited our scene with Movie plus (editing software) this would help us get to grips with the software and what features it had and learn how to use them.
Overall this task helped me get to grips with the camera and some of its options and it also helped me learn how to use the editing software in the fact that I can edit clips together and change the transitions between each clip.   

 

Film Language

Film Language

In our last lesson we learnt about film language and how important it is, we learnt how editing and sound are both crustal parts of film language and that they help structure the narrative, how they link scenes and events together and how it helps show a logical order to the film and how it helps show time span throughout the film.

Editing

There are many types of editing some edits are used to transition between shots and some can be used to show something important.

Matched Action: Matched action is where action from one shot is carried over to another for example in an action scene where some one punches some one else and the scene cuts mid punch to a different angle but you still see the punch as fluent as if it was one shot.

After action: after action is where the scene is cut directly after an action shot for example some one shoots someone else and after the shot has fired the scene changes to the view of the area rather then keep the same shot. this is used to show the dramatic impact of the scene .

Before action: Before action is similar to the after action but the cut is made before the action. an before action cut also has the same impacts of a after action shot.

Entrance/ Exit: Entrance/ Exit cut are a kind of motivational shot as the cut is made when the a main character leaves the shot so they cut to another shot of him/her. this is used to show movement within a  scene with out moving the camera

 

  

Editing techniques

Editing techniques 

When you film and edit a clip or sequence there are a few techniques that can be added in to add effect or that must be followed for the clip to make sense.

Eye line match

Eye line match is usually used when two characters are talking and gives the effect that they are looking at each other even though they are not in the same shot. This also comes in useful when there are multiple people in the clip but not all in the same shot, it comes in useful as while they are taking it is clear to whom they are talking to. An eye line match can also be used when a character is looking at an object and then the scene cuts to that object for example a man is looking to his left then it cuts to the television that he is watching. 

Pace

The pace of the cut is when the time between cut is short which makes it  faster which builds the tension of the scene or long which makes it slower which make it less tense and more calm . Pace can also be refered to as the rhythm or tempo of the shot.

Cross cutting

Cross cutting is a technique where it establishes that there are two things happing at the same time in two different places. to do this the camera cuts from one scene to another which gives the effect of them happing at the same time but this is not all ways the case. Cross cutting can also be used to make the audience question the shots for example the first scene is looking at a rich man counting his money and then it cuts to a some poor homeless people lining up for food in a shelter this creates a sharp controversy between the scenes and makes the audience question each scene.

Graphic match

A graphic match is where two similar objects, compositions ect match in two different scenes which metaphorically link the two shots. this can also be used to create a cutaway between two shots as it focuses on one object and then changes scene but is focused on the same object on a similar object. 

180 degree rule

This is an editing technique where if there are two people talking to each other but are opposite each other then the camera must not pass past around 180 degrees.(shown in picture below). If the camera 

does pass around 180 degrees then is makes it look like they are stood next to each other.  

Main task

The main task

Our main task is to make an opening secuence to a fiction film and it must introduce titles (Film name, actors, directors etc) and a relivent sound track(suit the purpose of the opening sequence) and must last aproxamatly 2 minutes.

The first part of our main task is to plan the production (Pre-production) for which we will have to do some research (by going out and finding opening sequences the either intrest us or will help us plan our sequence), plan the production (getting hold of any extra equipment we need that the school does not have, organising locations to make sure that we can use them when the time comes to film,) and do some audence research ( By which we will have to see what type of audence watches what type of film e.g. a young audence is not going to watch a horror film).

The second part of our main task is to Film the sequence (Production) for which we will have to go out and film the sequence which could take week or even months whihc is where the pre- production will come in as if we have planed correctly we will get the best we can out of our group (Filming, acting etc). But there is one thing we must keep in mind that is "Good enough is NOT Good enough".

The third part of our main task is the after production (Post-Production) where we will edit our clips and filiming from our second part and add all of the after effects like sound and a soundtrack, types of cuts like fade aways etc. This is also where we will add our titles to our sequence.

Throughout this process we must keep an up to date blog or diary on what is happing.