Thought Processes About Final Idea
What is our opening sequence about?
Our opening sequence/ film story line is a hybrid genre of a psychological crime drama, about a young girl of around 18 who gets into a relationship with her new boyfriend of around 25. At first everything is fine and the couple are happy but as the story unfolds we start to see hidden disasters within the relationship.
The opening sequence starts off with a long shot of the young girl sitting on the floor in a dark room, with a stream of light from the window hitting her. As the camera starts to zoom in slowly the clips fade to black showing the producers name and actor's names. This happens several times and each time as we go back to the girl in the room the camera zooms in more and more, until we reach the girl. A final black screen is shown of the title and then it goes into a close up of the girl's hand, holding a bloody knife. From here the camera pans up the girl's arm and we can see cuts and bruises until it reaches another close-up of her face, here we can see that she's been crying, her make-up has run down her face and she has a faint look in her eyes. Then The flashbacks start to happen. In a sepia or black and white effect, quite bright we see the young girl and her partner holding hands and swaying with each other in a field during the summer, all happy like a normal couple, Non-diegetic music being played over the top, quite happy and joyful, synchronous to the clips being shown, followed by another shot of a close up of the girls face. this happens twice until the third flashback changes. From a point of view shot (The camera acting as the girl, so us as an audience feel like we are her) The girl is sat on the floor, With a low angle shot we can see the dark shadowy figure standing over her, in a dark black and white effect, until the shadowy hand hits her and she falls to the floor. (The camera falls over and lies on the side making it look like the girl has fallen over) During the third flashback the music changes like a scratch of a broken record player, and turns into quite a dark piece of music, again synchronous to the clips, helping to create a mood toward the audience. Finally the girl snaps out of the flashbacks, all the music cuts off and all we can hear is police sirens from outside with flashes of blue light across the girls face, she looks up, directly looking at the camera and dropps the knife, and this is how the opening sequence ends.
Camera Shots and Angles
Throughout our opening sequence a wide range of camera shots and angles have been used. We start by introducing the young girl first as she is the main character through a long shot, by doing this the audience are able to see what she looks like, whilst the camera's zooming in as well. They can see that she is wearing hardly any clothes, so she's exposed, this helps them to see the bruises and the marks on her body, along with her being upset as all her make-ups running this makes the audience ask themselves what's happened to her? and how did she get all them marks? As well as the close up of the bloody knife, the audience will think what has she done with it/ who has she killed? Already using 3 enigma codes, And breaking female stereotypes as she's seen to be quite strong to have possibly killed somebody and she's an independent woman as she is shown on her own in the apartment.
During the violent flashback a point of view shot is used. The camera acts as the girl on the floor, this looks like us, the viewer is her, and this is happening to us, playing on the psychological side of the film, that the audience have to think about what's happening and piece it together but feel like they are involved from the point of view shot. Whilst the point of view shot is happening, a low angle is used, so it's like we are looking up at her boyfriend. The audience don't actually see his face at all throughout the opening sequence; they just see him as a dark and mysterious character. Our production group wanted to leave him as a mysterious character as again we play on the psychological side of the genre, were creating more enigma codes for the audience such as What does he look like ? And Why can't we see what he looks like?.
Mise-En-Scene
Our production group chose 2 settings for the opening sequence. One in a small dark room, where the audience first see the girl before she has the flashbacks, the same room being used in the third flashback when her boyfriend hits her. We thought the fact that the room is dark and all we can see is her makes it more mysterious, we can't see anything but her and this knife, so the audience don't exactly know where she is or where the apartment is placed. A secluded area is typical to a crime drama, The person who commits the crime such as a murder or kidnapping usually goes to a place that's deserted so nobody can hear them scream and they can get away with what they commit so that's why we chose an empty room.
The second place that we chose was the open field/park in the first and second flashback, contrasting the dark and secluded area, the couple are actually out in the open, in front of other people or out in public the boyfriend acts all happy so no one can suspect what is going on until he actually gets back to the apartment where the audience see him hurt her.
Our opening sequence only contains one prop which is the knife connoting violence. We chose a knife to reflect the idea of knife crime, whilst the domestic violence is also being shown in the background. We chose not to see the young girl actually kill her boyfriend, or to see his body, creating another enigma code of was it her boyfriend she actually killed? By what the audience piece together, they think that she has killed her boyfriend but without them seeing the body or her killing him they can't actually confirm that, leaving the rest of the story open.
There aren't a lot of costumes used either. The young girl is shown to be wearing 2 costumes, one in the dark scenes of violence and at the beginning of the opening sequence with her wearing a black vest top and a short pair of shorts. We wanted to make her clothing quite revealing so we could see bruises and cuts on her, from her boyfriend hitting and hurting her. As well as it shows her to be putting herself out there, as it would have taken her to be quite flirty to attract the older male in the first place. During the long shot of her at the beginning and the short clips of her between the flashbacks we can see her face, her make-up has smudge, and she's all teary eyed, This helps to show her emotions and the psychological side as she must have been thinking about the situation a lot and the actions that she chose to make her so upset that her make-up runs. She also wears a flowy dress in the flashbacks of them in the field during the summer, again quite revealing but typical to that type of weather, The audience sort of see her face from a side shot, and an occasional front view, they can see that she is heavily made up though, being able to see this through the sepia or black and white effect to show that she wants to make an effort for her boyfriend.
The older male isn't shown a lot in the opening sequence as we chose to keep him mysterious and portray him as this dark shadowy figure. The only time the audience really see him is during the summer flashback with his girlfriend. His backs turned to the camera but he's wearing quite a lot of clothes; jeans, and a long sleeved top/ jumper, even though it's quite hot outside. This being a binary opposite to the young girl as she's wearing a strappy revealing dress again showing her to be quite flirty when her boyfriend's fully covered up.
Lighting
A range of different lighting is used throughout the opening sequence. Firstly during the long shot of the girl, a spot light is used on her, so the audience are able to see her make up and get a good look at the main character. The contrast between saturated and de-saturated colours in the flashbacks. Saturated colours are used in the first flashbacks of them in the field all happy, as they will be very light washed out looking flashbacks to make them look older, compared to the desaturated colours in the flashback of the her boyfriend beating her, quite dark vivid colours are used, this helps set the mood toward the audience and as the lighting changes their mood should change with the clips as well.
Editing
There isn't a lot of editing used within our opening sequence, mainly at the beginning when we zoom in on the girl, fading the scenes to black to show production names and the names of the actors and editors, etc. fading back into the image of the girl, each time getting closer and closer, until after the last clip of film name fades into a close-up of the knife and the opening sequence starts. We chose to do this as there aren't really any other appropriate times to include the title scenes, and the fading between the black slides and a closer image of the girl sitting on the floor grips the audience to want to watch the rest, as the short little clips of her create a tense effect. We will edit in a police siren effect at the end of the opening sequence too to make it sound like the police are outside her apartment/room. We want to incorporate this as a lot of crime movies include the police or detectives, and we didn't want to make it too psychological as the main genre is crime.
Enigma Codes
Our opening sequence contains quite a few enigma codes, mainly from the psychological side of the genre, the audience are left to think about a lot of things, such as:
- Why is she holding a knife?
- Who has she killed?
- Why is she covered in cuts and bruises?
- What happens in the relationship for him to want to hurt her?
- Why does she want to be in a relationship with a man 7 years older than her?
- Why aren't her parents involved in her life?
- What does she do with the body that she's killed?
- Why does she feel killing him is the only way out of the situation?
- Why does she stay in the apartment after killing him?
- What happens with the police? do they take her away?
- What does the boyfriend look like? / Why can't we see what he looks like?
Theorists
One theory that our opening sequence has followed is John Bergers. His theory was that men see women as objects and are inferior to them. which is exactly what happens in our story line, The young girl portrays herself as quite flirty, heavily makes herself up to try and get her boyfriend to like her even more, when he sees her as this weak object and results to beating her. He knows that she won't run away or tell anybody, because she knows he'll just beat her more, and that this is what she wanted in the first place, for him to acknowledge her. We break this theory in the end by the young girl standing up for herself even if she does it in the wrong way, by killing him. By her doing this she's actually also portrayed as this strong independent woman who in the end realises she doesn't have to depend on this man, that she's better off without him.
Another theory that we follow is Claude Levi-Strauss', He came up with the theory of binary opposition, which again is exactly what our story follows, the sense of good and evil. The girl acts all good an innocent at first when she's with her boyfriend, she's happy and will put up with whatever to be with him, until she turns into this slightly evil psychopathic character by standing up for herself and killing him. The boyfriend is also seen as this evil character as he takes advantage of the girl because he knows he can get away with it, until he dies because of it.
Some may argue and say that we also follow Aristotle's theory as well, he had the idea that every story has a beginning, middle, and end, which is sort of what happens in our story. The beginning is where the couple are all happy; he acts happy towards her so that she learns to trust him, thinking that nothing could go wrong. Then the middle happens, where actually things do go wrong, he starts abusing her, hitting her e.c.t keeping her enclosed in this tiny room/ apartment so she can't escape and tell anybody. And the end where she gets fed up, and everything's built up inside of her that she lashes out and kills him as her only form of escape, even though it's not the end to the whole story, the whole situation comes to a proper ending.
Target Audience
The target audience for our opening sequence/film is from around 15 onwards. A lot of people start getting into relationships from this age and throughout their lives, and they should be aware that not all relationships are happy and easy, that sometimes after while things can possibly take a turn for the worst. As well as knife crime, whether you are in a relationship or not people can stab you at any moment. We think that people around this age may have had an experience of one or both of these crimes, maybe they were the ones to stab someone and have dealt with the consequences of that or were the ones to have been beaten or hurt buy a partner; It links to personal relationships and identity, that they can relate to whats happening or know someone that it has happened to, or even if they watch it to become more aware of the topic.
This also leads on to the point of Ideology. People live their everyday lives, happily whether they are in a relationship or not, or whether they just like to have fun, or are stuck in the busy world of work, totally oblivious that things such as knife crime or more so domestic violence are happening at this very moment and no one is able to help. Whether the victim escapes from the situation or not it leaves them traumatised for months, even years after, and them being able to trust someone else again whether that is friends or a partner takes a lot of time and effort. Along with knife crime, people are very aware about the topic, they understand that it happens daily on the streets, yet barely anyone does anything to stop it until they, or a close friend/partner are stabbed or effect by the situation. Just because it doesn't happen to them doesn't mean that it doesn't happen at all. And that's what our story line is about. The hybrid cross of the two crimes, knife crime and domestic violence makes people aware that things like this still happen today and are happening right now.
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Treatment Template Final Idea
Treatment Template Final Idea
Title :
As a group we haven't yet come up with a title for our opening sequence , it's a working process which will be developed as we start and continue to film.
Names:
Lauryn Corbett, Sonny Rowling, Conor Drake, Enniola Silva
Date:
15/11/12
Production Company Name:
Group 1
Presents A :
Psychological Crime Drama ( Hybrid )
About A:
Young Girl ( around 18 ) who gets into a relationship with an older male ( around 25 ).
At first we see the young girl in a dark apartment, with the spot light on her, from a long shot. The camera zooms in to a close-up of the girls hand, she's holding a bloody knife. The camera then pans up her arm and torso towards her face into a close-up so we can see her crying and all her make-up smudge. From here we start to see flashbacks of her and her boyfriend all happy, running through a field in the summer, flowy dresses and summery clothes worn, Us as an audience not seeing the boyfriends face so he remains a mystery character. Jumping between other flashbacks of her on the floor from a point of view shot so it feels like us as the audience are her, from a low angle looking up at this shadowy figure hitting her. After all the flashbacks it goes back into the the long shot of the girl in the room and we see blue flashes and hear police sirense, before the opening sequence ends.
Costumes :
For the Young girl in the flash backs she will be wearing quite summery clothes, a flowy dress or top, And for the present day when she is in the apartment she's wearing dark clothing, such as a black vest top and shorts, exposing her, showing bruises or wounds that she has encountered by her boyfriend beating her.
For the boyfriend we don't really see what he is wearing in the flashbacks as he is shown more as a dark figure, in the flashbacks of the summer he's still wearing dark clothes, covered up, jeans and a black t-shirt, to keep him more mysterious.
Camera :
To start off the opening sequence we will see a long shot of the young girl in the room, We can see that it's autumn/winter time from the window behind this enables us to get an idea of who the main character is and we can see what she looks like. Then by using close-ups on the knife and her face we are able to link the two ideas together, that she's upset because she's used the knife on somebody but we don't exactly see who.
At the beginning of the flashback an establishing shot is used to show the whole of the feild during the summer so the couple have space to run around e.t.c making the clip look quite happy and by the flashbacks being during summer and the present day being in autumn/winter we are able to create a time laps and as an audience get an idea of how long they have been together.
Then the whole storyline takes a turn when we see a low angle shot, point of view shot looking up at the boyfriend about to hit the young girl. by using the point of view shot it enables the us as an audience to feel like we are the young girl about to be beaten by this dark mysterious character, we feel what she feels, drawing the audience in and possibly as the dark shadow goes to hit her it's as if the camera falls over to the floor as if she has been knocked out or onto the floor, again it feeling like we are her as an audience.
The close-up flashes in betweeen each flashback of the girl a fast face speed, helping to make her look more psychopathic as we can see her getting more and more upset as she thinks about the whole of their relationship and how everything went wrong.
Sound:
Our opening sepuence isn't going to contain any dialogue we thought it would be more effective if we used soundtracks over the top with sound effects through the middle. By the characters not speaking it makes the audience think more whats happening in the clips and with the genre being a hybrid of a psychological crime drama aswell as us seeing how the domestic violence effects her it also effects us as an audience as it makes us think and peice the storyline together.
The opening music's going to be quite slow, not much going on just a low sounding note played for a really long time to create a tensious effect as we see the knife and her face as she's been crying. Then as the Happy flashbacks occur we hear happy music synchronus to whats happening in the clips, it makes us think that everything in the couples relationship is fine and that they are happy together. For the Domestic Violence scenes the music merges into a quite dark scratch soundtrack creating a tense and unhappy mood again synchrous to the clips.
We was thinking about having some sound effects, maybe some scratchy record noises as the music changes with the clips, and possibly during the violence scenes at the end we hear her scream so we know sort of that he has hurt her as the camera drops to the floor, and especially at the end we will here the police sirens outside of the room she is in.
Lighting :
There will be alot of lighting used in the opening sequence to help set the mood. during the first scene where we see the young girl in the room, the room will be very dark, the only light we see will be a spot light, possibly from a gap in the window shining down on the girl sitting on the floor so when we zoom into her face we can see that she's been crying and that she's angry quite clearly.
Throughout the opening sequence a range of saturated and de-saturated colours and tones. For the happy flashbacks the couple will be outside in a field. but because the flashbacks will be shown in a sepia or black and white colour we will lighten the brightness/contrast so it's quite bright to reflect the summer setting. As for the Violent scenes the couolour will remain the same either sepia/black and white but in a darker brightness/contrast so we feel the mood change.
Editing:
For the editing we was stuck on how we would encorperate slides showing the production name and the actors e.t.c My initial idea was that as the camera starts to zoom in during the long shot of the screen that it jaggers into black flashes showing the names of actors, the production names, and film title in and out each time the girl is shown getting closer and closer toward the camera, until finaly the film title is shown and there is the close up of her face.
When we are editing the clips together we will put in the sepia/black and white tones and change the contrasts of them during the flashbacks aswell as editing out anybackground noises as we dont want any dialogue or crackling sounds. As well as editing over the soundtracks during the scenes to fit the clips.
Gender Role Reversal and Binary Opposites:
We've kept to the idea that it's usually the male that uses domestic violence towards the woman accept in this case the situation gets too much for the young girl and she ends up lashing out and killing her boyfriend
There are binary opposites of age as she is 18 and he's 25 the contrast of the age difference is 7 years, not a typical relationship age as most people stick to people their own age or slightly older/younger not a big jump of 7 years. The idea that the girl stands up for herself but ends up killing her boyfriend when usually the male that uses domestic violence usually does end up killing or severaly hurting the girl.
Enigma Codes
Our opening sequence contains quite a few enigma codes, mainly from the psychological side of the genre, the audience are left to think about a lot of things, such as:
- Why is she holding a knife?
- Who has she killed?
- Why is she covered in cuts and bruises?
- What happens in the relationship for him to want to hurt her?
- Why does she want to be in a relationship with a man 7 years older than her?
- Why aren't her parents involved in her life?
- What does she do with the body that she's killed?
- Why does she feel killing him is the only way out of the situation?
- Why does she stay in the apartment after killing him?
- What happens with the police? do they take her away?
- What does the boyfriend look like? / Why can't we see what he looks like?
Executive Producers:
Miss.Butler and Mr.Lawes
Title :
As a group we haven't yet come up with a title for our opening sequence , it's a working process which will be developed as we start and continue to film.
Names:
Lauryn Corbett, Sonny Rowling, Conor Drake, Enniola Silva
Date:
15/11/12
Production Company Name:
Group 1
Presents A :
Psychological Crime Drama ( Hybrid )
About A:
Young Girl ( around 18 ) who gets into a relationship with an older male ( around 25 ).
At first we see the young girl in a dark apartment, with the spot light on her, from a long shot. The camera zooms in to a close-up of the girls hand, she's holding a bloody knife. The camera then pans up her arm and torso towards her face into a close-up so we can see her crying and all her make-up smudge. From here we start to see flashbacks of her and her boyfriend all happy, running through a field in the summer, flowy dresses and summery clothes worn, Us as an audience not seeing the boyfriends face so he remains a mystery character. Jumping between other flashbacks of her on the floor from a point of view shot so it feels like us as the audience are her, from a low angle looking up at this shadowy figure hitting her. After all the flashbacks it goes back into the the long shot of the girl in the room and we see blue flashes and hear police sirense, before the opening sequence ends.
Costumes :
For the Young girl in the flash backs she will be wearing quite summery clothes, a flowy dress or top, And for the present day when she is in the apartment she's wearing dark clothing, such as a black vest top and shorts, exposing her, showing bruises or wounds that she has encountered by her boyfriend beating her.
For the boyfriend we don't really see what he is wearing in the flashbacks as he is shown more as a dark figure, in the flashbacks of the summer he's still wearing dark clothes, covered up, jeans and a black t-shirt, to keep him more mysterious.
Camera :
To start off the opening sequence we will see a long shot of the young girl in the room, We can see that it's autumn/winter time from the window behind this enables us to get an idea of who the main character is and we can see what she looks like. Then by using close-ups on the knife and her face we are able to link the two ideas together, that she's upset because she's used the knife on somebody but we don't exactly see who.
At the beginning of the flashback an establishing shot is used to show the whole of the feild during the summer so the couple have space to run around e.t.c making the clip look quite happy and by the flashbacks being during summer and the present day being in autumn/winter we are able to create a time laps and as an audience get an idea of how long they have been together.
Then the whole storyline takes a turn when we see a low angle shot, point of view shot looking up at the boyfriend about to hit the young girl. by using the point of view shot it enables the us as an audience to feel like we are the young girl about to be beaten by this dark mysterious character, we feel what she feels, drawing the audience in and possibly as the dark shadow goes to hit her it's as if the camera falls over to the floor as if she has been knocked out or onto the floor, again it feeling like we are her as an audience.
The close-up flashes in betweeen each flashback of the girl a fast face speed, helping to make her look more psychopathic as we can see her getting more and more upset as she thinks about the whole of their relationship and how everything went wrong.
Sound:
Our opening sepuence isn't going to contain any dialogue we thought it would be more effective if we used soundtracks over the top with sound effects through the middle. By the characters not speaking it makes the audience think more whats happening in the clips and with the genre being a hybrid of a psychological crime drama aswell as us seeing how the domestic violence effects her it also effects us as an audience as it makes us think and peice the storyline together.
The opening music's going to be quite slow, not much going on just a low sounding note played for a really long time to create a tensious effect as we see the knife and her face as she's been crying. Then as the Happy flashbacks occur we hear happy music synchronus to whats happening in the clips, it makes us think that everything in the couples relationship is fine and that they are happy together. For the Domestic Violence scenes the music merges into a quite dark scratch soundtrack creating a tense and unhappy mood again synchrous to the clips.
We was thinking about having some sound effects, maybe some scratchy record noises as the music changes with the clips, and possibly during the violence scenes at the end we hear her scream so we know sort of that he has hurt her as the camera drops to the floor, and especially at the end we will here the police sirens outside of the room she is in.
Lighting :
There will be alot of lighting used in the opening sequence to help set the mood. during the first scene where we see the young girl in the room, the room will be very dark, the only light we see will be a spot light, possibly from a gap in the window shining down on the girl sitting on the floor so when we zoom into her face we can see that she's been crying and that she's angry quite clearly.
Throughout the opening sequence a range of saturated and de-saturated colours and tones. For the happy flashbacks the couple will be outside in a field. but because the flashbacks will be shown in a sepia or black and white colour we will lighten the brightness/contrast so it's quite bright to reflect the summer setting. As for the Violent scenes the couolour will remain the same either sepia/black and white but in a darker brightness/contrast so we feel the mood change.
Editing:
For the editing we was stuck on how we would encorperate slides showing the production name and the actors e.t.c My initial idea was that as the camera starts to zoom in during the long shot of the screen that it jaggers into black flashes showing the names of actors, the production names, and film title in and out each time the girl is shown getting closer and closer toward the camera, until finaly the film title is shown and there is the close up of her face.
When we are editing the clips together we will put in the sepia/black and white tones and change the contrasts of them during the flashbacks aswell as editing out anybackground noises as we dont want any dialogue or crackling sounds. As well as editing over the soundtracks during the scenes to fit the clips.
Gender Role Reversal and Binary Opposites:
We've kept to the idea that it's usually the male that uses domestic violence towards the woman accept in this case the situation gets too much for the young girl and she ends up lashing out and killing her boyfriend
There are binary opposites of age as she is 18 and he's 25 the contrast of the age difference is 7 years, not a typical relationship age as most people stick to people their own age or slightly older/younger not a big jump of 7 years. The idea that the girl stands up for herself but ends up killing her boyfriend when usually the male that uses domestic violence usually does end up killing or severaly hurting the girl.
Enigma Codes
Our opening sequence contains quite a few enigma codes, mainly from the psychological side of the genre, the audience are left to think about a lot of things, such as:
- Why is she holding a knife?
- Who has she killed?
- Why is she covered in cuts and bruises?
- What happens in the relationship for him to want to hurt her?
- Why does she want to be in a relationship with a man 7 years older than her?
- Why aren't her parents involved in her life?
- What does she do with the body that she's killed?
- Why does she feel killing him is the only way out of the situation?
- Why does she stay in the apartment after killing him?
- What happens with the police? do they take her away?
- What does the boyfriend look like? / Why can't we see what he looks like?
Executive Producers:
Miss.Butler and Mr.Lawes
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Treatment Template ( initial ideas and improved initial ideas ) Pitch and Group Meeting
Treatment Template : Initial Idea
Title:
At the moment i haven't come up with a title for my opening sequence
Date:
12/11/12
Production:
Group 1
Presents A :
Crime Drama
About :
My Crime Drama is about a young girl who gets involved in a gang that she shouldn't have. The gang make her do an Initiation Test to see if she is worthy enough to hang around with them and make her steal from a shop . As the girl goes in The gang run away leaving her to deal with the crime she's about to commit by herself. The shop keeper catches her and calls the police, but the girl knows she can't be caught as she has a previous track record ( has commited other crimes before )Trying to prove herself innocent the young girl tries to track down the gang to get get revenge.
Characters:
The main character is the young girl who commits the crimes and tries to get revenge. I would need to get other people to help form part of the gang and have a police officer too.
As The Story Unfolds :
We realise that the young girl is actually innocent to the xcrimes she has previously commited and we see how she seeks out her revenge.
I PlanTo :
Stick to the genre and not make it too comical or too serious. Stick to the codes and conventions of a crime drama but also try to deviate from the normal stereotypical roles.
Sound :
I will use a range of different sounds to fit with the clips , at a range of different paces to help create tension and effect.
Camera Angles and Shots :
I will try to include a lot of different camera angles and shots such as close-ups on the item that the young girl steals to help the audience understand whats going on and also to help build up tension and create effect.
Mise-En-Scene:
It will be set around an urban town to get a feel for where the young girl lives , as well as gangs usually being assosiated with hanging about on the streets.
The characters will be wearing casual clothing such as hoodies and jeans/ tracksuit bottoms as that is typical to what gang members or 'chavs' usually wear. My crime drama breaks the usual stereotypes as young males are usualy involved with gangs and commit crimes
Executive Producers:
Miss.Buttler and Mr.Lawes.
Treatment Template improved idea
Title:
At the moment I haven't come up with a title for my opening sequence
Date:
13/11/12
Production:
Group 1
Presents A :
Crime Drama
About :
My Crime Drama is about a young girl who gets involved in a gang that she shouldn't have. The gang make her do an Initiation Test to see if she is worthy enough to hang around with them and make her steal from a shop . As the girl goes in The gang run away leaving her to deal with the crime she's about to commit by herself. The shop keeper catches her and calls the police, but the girl knows she can't be caught as she has a previous track record ( has commited other crimes before )Trying to prove herself innocent the young girl tries to track down the gang to get get revenge.
Characters:
The main character is the young girl who commits the crimes and tries to get revenge. I would need to get other people to help form part of the gang and have a police officer too.
As The Story Unfolds :
We realise that the young girl is actually innocent to the crimes she has previously commited and we see how she seeks out her revenge.
I PlanTo :
Stick to the genre and not make it too comical or too serious. Stick to the codes and conventions of a crime drama but also try to deviate from the normal stereotypical roles.
Camera Angles and Shots :
I will try to include a lot of different camera angles and shots such as close-ups on the item that the young girl steals and her facial expressions as she is about to steal the item from the shop and is running away from the police , the eye contact with the audience from the close ups will make them feel more involved as it helps to create tension from direct address. I will also include a montage as she is running away from the police , this will include Long Shots, Close-ups of her facial expressions and feet as she is running and a close up of her head turning around to see if the police are following ehr. By doing this tension is created as, as an audience we want to know if she gets away from the police or not as one of the Enigma Codes.
Sound :
I will use a range of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in the opening sequence such as diologue between the girl and the gang using slang names and not propper english as thats trypically how most people involved in gangs or wonder the streets talk especially the generation of today. I will use quite slow music when the young girl is about to enter the shop to help create tension and then really fast pace action music when she is running away, during the montage to go with the pace of the filming. All the sounds and effects will be synchrous to the clips.
Editing :
I will use a fade to black at the begining of the clip just after the long shot of her sitting in a dark house by herself. The black slide will say " 2 hours before " as part of the enigma codes and as each characters are shown the clip will be paused briefly so their name and character name can appear on the screen. And during the montage directors and editors names e.t.c will flash up and appear as well.
Mise-En-Scene:
It will be set around an urban town to get a feel for where the young girl lives , as well as gangs usually being assosiated with hanging about on the streets.
The characters will be wearing casual clothing such as hoodies and jeans/ tracksuit bottoms as that is typical to what gang members or 'chavs' usually wear. My crime drama breaks the usual stereotypes as young males are usualy involved with gangs and commit crimes
Enigma Codes:
Why does she join the group ? Will she get away from the police ? Why does she have a track record ? What crimes has she comitted ? How will she get revenge on the gang ? What sort of home life does she have to want to join a gang and commit crimes ?
Executive Producers:
Miss.Buttler and Mr.Lawes.
Pitching My Idea And Group Meetings.
After I had improved my initial idea, i had to then pitch it to the rest of the class, whilst another person in a different group peer assessed my idea. Each member of My group had to pitch their idea and after we got all of our feedback back we sat and discussed what worked well or not so well in each of our initial ideas and tried to put together one strong idea for our actual opening sequence.
My Feedback Sheet
What do you think worked well ?
What kind of revenge ? ( enigma code)
Presents an interesting issue
The darkness to add effect
Montage sounds interesting
What do you think could be improved ?
We already know what might happen in the film as we know the rest of the story will focus on her revenge.
Title:
At the moment i haven't come up with a title for my opening sequence
Date:
12/11/12
Production:
Group 1
Presents A :
Crime Drama
About :
My Crime Drama is about a young girl who gets involved in a gang that she shouldn't have. The gang make her do an Initiation Test to see if she is worthy enough to hang around with them and make her steal from a shop . As the girl goes in The gang run away leaving her to deal with the crime she's about to commit by herself. The shop keeper catches her and calls the police, but the girl knows she can't be caught as she has a previous track record ( has commited other crimes before )Trying to prove herself innocent the young girl tries to track down the gang to get get revenge.
Characters:
The main character is the young girl who commits the crimes and tries to get revenge. I would need to get other people to help form part of the gang and have a police officer too.
As The Story Unfolds :
We realise that the young girl is actually innocent to the xcrimes she has previously commited and we see how she seeks out her revenge.
I PlanTo :
Stick to the genre and not make it too comical or too serious. Stick to the codes and conventions of a crime drama but also try to deviate from the normal stereotypical roles.
Sound :
I will use a range of different sounds to fit with the clips , at a range of different paces to help create tension and effect.
Camera Angles and Shots :
I will try to include a lot of different camera angles and shots such as close-ups on the item that the young girl steals to help the audience understand whats going on and also to help build up tension and create effect.
Mise-En-Scene:
It will be set around an urban town to get a feel for where the young girl lives , as well as gangs usually being assosiated with hanging about on the streets.
The characters will be wearing casual clothing such as hoodies and jeans/ tracksuit bottoms as that is typical to what gang members or 'chavs' usually wear. My crime drama breaks the usual stereotypes as young males are usualy involved with gangs and commit crimes
Executive Producers:
Miss.Buttler and Mr.Lawes.
Treatment Template improved idea
Title:
At the moment I haven't come up with a title for my opening sequence
Date:
13/11/12
Production:
Group 1
Presents A :
Crime Drama
About :
My Crime Drama is about a young girl who gets involved in a gang that she shouldn't have. The gang make her do an Initiation Test to see if she is worthy enough to hang around with them and make her steal from a shop . As the girl goes in The gang run away leaving her to deal with the crime she's about to commit by herself. The shop keeper catches her and calls the police, but the girl knows she can't be caught as she has a previous track record ( has commited other crimes before )Trying to prove herself innocent the young girl tries to track down the gang to get get revenge.
Characters:
The main character is the young girl who commits the crimes and tries to get revenge. I would need to get other people to help form part of the gang and have a police officer too.
As The Story Unfolds :
We realise that the young girl is actually innocent to the crimes she has previously commited and we see how she seeks out her revenge.
I PlanTo :
Stick to the genre and not make it too comical or too serious. Stick to the codes and conventions of a crime drama but also try to deviate from the normal stereotypical roles.
Camera Angles and Shots :
I will try to include a lot of different camera angles and shots such as close-ups on the item that the young girl steals and her facial expressions as she is about to steal the item from the shop and is running away from the police , the eye contact with the audience from the close ups will make them feel more involved as it helps to create tension from direct address. I will also include a montage as she is running away from the police , this will include Long Shots, Close-ups of her facial expressions and feet as she is running and a close up of her head turning around to see if the police are following ehr. By doing this tension is created as, as an audience we want to know if she gets away from the police or not as one of the Enigma Codes.
Sound :
I will use a range of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in the opening sequence such as diologue between the girl and the gang using slang names and not propper english as thats trypically how most people involved in gangs or wonder the streets talk especially the generation of today. I will use quite slow music when the young girl is about to enter the shop to help create tension and then really fast pace action music when she is running away, during the montage to go with the pace of the filming. All the sounds and effects will be synchrous to the clips.
Editing :
I will use a fade to black at the begining of the clip just after the long shot of her sitting in a dark house by herself. The black slide will say " 2 hours before " as part of the enigma codes and as each characters are shown the clip will be paused briefly so their name and character name can appear on the screen. And during the montage directors and editors names e.t.c will flash up and appear as well.
Mise-En-Scene:
It will be set around an urban town to get a feel for where the young girl lives , as well as gangs usually being assosiated with hanging about on the streets.
The characters will be wearing casual clothing such as hoodies and jeans/ tracksuit bottoms as that is typical to what gang members or 'chavs' usually wear. My crime drama breaks the usual stereotypes as young males are usualy involved with gangs and commit crimes
Enigma Codes:
Why does she join the group ? Will she get away from the police ? Why does she have a track record ? What crimes has she comitted ? How will she get revenge on the gang ? What sort of home life does she have to want to join a gang and commit crimes ?
Executive Producers:
Miss.Buttler and Mr.Lawes.
Pitching My Idea And Group Meetings.
After I had improved my initial idea, i had to then pitch it to the rest of the class, whilst another person in a different group peer assessed my idea. Each member of My group had to pitch their idea and after we got all of our feedback back we sat and discussed what worked well or not so well in each of our initial ideas and tried to put together one strong idea for our actual opening sequence.
My Feedback Sheet
What do you think worked well ?
What kind of revenge ? ( enigma code)
Presents an interesting issue
The darkness to add effect
Montage sounds interesting
What do you think could be improved ?
We already know what might happen in the film as we know the rest of the story will focus on her revenge.
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Weak
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Satisfactory
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Strong
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Comment
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Suitability as an opening sequence
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X
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Camera
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Editing
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Characters
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Mise-en-scene
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Creative flair/ keeping within the genre
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Overall
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Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Speed Dating Genres
Today in class we went over all the functions of different genres of film to help get an idea of what genre we wanted to choose for our final opening sequence. we looked at camera angles and shots , costumes and props, the main functions of that genre and things we could do to improve and change that genre slightly and make it different.
We then came up with an initial idea ( posted below ) on what genre we would like to pick for our opening sequence which was then peer assessed by Chelsey Gritton.
We then came up with an initial idea ( posted below ) on what genre we would like to pick for our opening sequence which was then peer assessed by Chelsey Gritton.
Initial Idea For Opening Sequence
Initial idea for opening sequence
Horror
The idea that I had for the opening
sequence was to follow the 1970’s decade of The nightmare decade that the story
follows a more twisted idea causing nightmares and psychological feelings
toward the nightmare.
The sequence will be based around a family
that are just moving into a new house, a mum, dad and 2 little girls. The
father in the film is a director fir weird supernatural happenings and moves
the family into the town as the local castle is supposed to be haunted. The
horror also acts partly as a documentary but when Dad is left alone in the
castle for secret filming not everything goes as planned. With dad being
possessed by a child catching demon, all hell breaks loose for the family.
For this sequence at the beginning we would
need 4 actors, and with four of us in the group one can be an actor but also
film as well just jumping in, in different shots. The idea of a family in the
clip could possibly relate to family mishaps, say they have moved into a dodgy
are themselves at some point. It would also follow alongside Todorov’s theory,
starting with an equilibrium as they move into the are, the dis-equilibrium
where everything goes wrong and the demon appears and the restored equilibrium
where the family move back out.
WWW: The fact that you’ve
used a lot of detail in planning it, and the fact that you’ve thought about
your other group members and the roles they take on
EBI: You elaborated on
why you’ve chosen Todorov’s theory J
You have some really
strong ideas Lauryn; it’s very detailed so you’ve obviously thought about it a
lot. I like the fact that you’ve also included the theory you’re going to use;
it shows you are very prepared for doing this task. Nice storyline too, all the
characters sound like they’re going to fit in with it, which is good so well
done!!
Peer assessed by Chelsey
Gritton <3
Friday, 2 November 2012
Choosing A Genre : Horror
The meanings of horror :
1) an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust.
2) a thing causing such a feeling.
3) intense dismay.
4) informal, a bad or mischievous person, especially a child.
Horror is origionally an ancient form of art, dating back to around the 15th century families, friends and aquaintances told each other gruesome stories about the ancient world and urban myths causing themselves to be scared witless, some even payed for the thrilling experience as scientists thought it triggered a rush or adrenalin which then bought fear.
Horror movies aim to create thrills but whilst also telling us stories of the darker side of life and death as well as reflecting current life such as in 1922 the tale of Nosferatu the very first vampire story, not only was it about the creation of a monster that sucked peoples blood at the time it reflected the Great War and the big Flu epidemic making the view put their own lives into prospective by making them think ' what if this had happened to me ....'.
Horror films mainly put the creation of a monster as the main character with hidden story lines behnd them, alot of these stories were written in the Victorian period ( 19th century ) mainly starting by Karl Jung's psychology of the shadow. The shadow being an individual part of the unconcous mind , like a dream, the shadow is more dense depending on the individuals life itself. It can appear as a person the same sex as the dreamer, or as a dark creature or shape, telling the person everything in which they do not wish to know about themselves. Following this theory writers then wrote stories following it such as The Erlking by Goethe and the first great classic horror, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Darkness and shadows were such important features of modern horror, for example again in Nosferatu where the vampire leaps amongst the gravestones in what appears to be broad daylight, seem doubly surreal to us now. They draw upon the ledgends, and follow monsters into physical form.
Horror movies were reborn in the 1930s when people started to go and whatch them in the cinema. Sound had a huge impact on the films itself , as people were use to silent horror movies. The fact audiences could hear what the characters were saying helped add to the thrilling experience as tey would remember certain quotes and phrases. The fact Horror provided a more fantastic and supernatural element provided an effective escape for audiences as they were able to watch someone elses world end in horror compared to theirs.
Over the years Horror movies introduced more and more characters and storylines , starting with the vampires in the 1920's, by the 1950's the out of space scene had arrived thus leading onto si-fi films. the 1960's introduced bad girls - monsters moving away from being men and more women, as well as woman being the villain and/or the victim. As well as blood freaks, horrow became more gorey with lots more blood. The 1970's bought in the Nightmare Decade, storyline lines that followed a more twisted idea causing more nightmares among audiences. The 1980's followed on from the blood epidemic, now with body parts being cut off or being lost in the ' Inside Out' period. Psychokillers followed in the 1990's bad men that would intentionally set out to harm either women or children for their own liking. And now in the 2000's contagion and Global Convergence apply , these are films where people catch illnesses or become ingulfed by supernatural beings.
For my five opening sequences I am going to choose films from different time periods to see the contrast between them and how they have developed over time.
GOLEM
For my first opening sequence i chose the 1920's film Golem. The film is about a little town called prague, that has been over run by the dreaded spirit Astaroth, the town live in fear of it , with destruction always in its path. one day a Jewish Rabi/Scientist reads about the Golem and how he is the only one whom can stop the dreaded spirt. He creates the being out of clay and then places an inchanted spell on him making him come to life. at first the town fear Golem as they aren't sure if he is part of Astaroths plan but once they realise he is there to help they rely on him as a hero to help save the town of prague.The film follows the mad scientist idea, that the Jewish Rabi who creates the creature Golem stays in his lab/home away from Astaroth ( the spirit ) tring to find ways in which he can get rid of him and help the village.
There wasn't an opening seqence to the film, but the whole film was on youtube, so i skimmed through it watching small parts, The characters remain the same throughout, the townspeople who generally at first live in fear of the spirit, The Jewish rabi whom creates Golem and Golem himself who acts as the town hero helping save them from Astaroth.
The film was set in the 1920's and during that time Horror films started of silently, with no diagetic sounds. there is non-diagetic sounds as there is music played over the top all the way through the film. The orchestra help create the mood throughout the film , in quite happy/ relaxing scenes the music is quite slow and calm, but when theres a more scary scene the music picks up, it becomes faster and minor chords are used to help create a tense atmsphere.
The mise-en-scene is set in the town of prague, a small village/town mixed with alley ways and bridges. They are wearing old clothes , the women wear very long dresses, to the ankles, corseted at the top, there hair al tied up in tight curls wiht some head wear, very classsy and elegant. The males were also very well presented as they wore suits with shirts, neatly tailored trouser some wearing capes, their hair also neatly curled , chin length.
There isnt alot of editing in the film , its all filmed in black and whiite as there weren't coloured cameras back in the 1920's. So that the viewers are able to unerstand the film as there is no sound, clips are edited in where words are shown, telling the story adn the scenes go along so the audience are able to understand the story and follow it all the way through, theyr'e like little summary's.
There arent alot of camera angles used either, mainy establishing shots at the beging to see what the village of prague looks like , and when the vilalgers are running around in fear of the spirt Astaroth showing all the damage in which he has casued. The rest are mainly long shots of Golem, and when the village are having a dance and Golem walks in, everyone bows down to worship him, to show their effection of him saving their town. There is one close up used and thats the scene when the Jewish Rabi is going through his books , we are able to see the blue prints of Golem before he is created as well as the spell that he uses to turn make him come to life.
PSYCHO
The second horror film i have chosen is the 1960's film Psycho. The film follows the 1960's idea of targeting 'blood freaks' especially in the famous shower scene, which i have chosen to look at.
The film is about a secretery ( Leigh) who goes to a secluded hotel after embezzeling money from her employer who gets stabbed by the disturbed hotel manager Perkins.
The main character in the film is Leigh the secretery, you find out why she takes the money from her employer, As well as the character of Perkins and why he stabbs her in the end.
In the Famous shower scene there isnt any dialogue just the sountrack that is played over the top. The screaching of the violins as the man walks into the bathroom helping to create a frightening atmosphere , as we see the shadow of the knife as he lifts it up to the shower curtaina dn stabbs her, the music calms down by the end of the scene when she's wriggling on the bottom of the shower floor.
There isn't much mise-en-scene in this clip, she drives up to a deserted hotel thought, in the middle of no where, creating suspicion and tention wihtin the audience, wondering why she chose here of all hotels. You dont see what the murderer is wearig in this scene and she isnt wearing any clothes as she is in the shower.
Psycho is very famous for this scene as there are over 70 camera angles and 90 shots used ,taking 7 days to film, they're all used very fast to help create tension, especially with the amount of times he stabbs her until she finally falls to the ground.
HALLOWEEN
For my fouth film i have chosen Halloween. Halloween is about a young boy called Michael who had a terrible upbringing , his family never payed much attention to him , and he gained a hobby for killing animals, until one day a bully in school got on his nerves too much so Michael followed him home through the woods and killed him, Aswell as killing everyone in his family apart from his little sister. He gained this idea that by wearing a mask he acted as someone else so when he was sent to a mental asylum he refused that it was him who killed all those people. Years later Michael escapes from the Mental Asylum and returns to his childhood home , not knowing that his sister still lives there and sets out on a rampage to kill the remaining people living in the house. In the end Michael escapes from the polices grasp and runs away into the night, leading on to the later film, Halloween 2.
The main character of the story is Michael he follows the Psychokiller role , he has a split personality , one in the beginging this sweet innocent child who loved to play and learn and two the mean streak in him that forces him to kill other people in the influence of masks. Michaels doctor is also an important character in the story , he talked to Michael everyday that he was in the asylum until one day when he decides to give up on the case. that day ebing when Michael escapes, when the doctor finds out he does all he can to track Michael down until Michael eventually kills him.
The camera in the opening sequence starts by acting the role of Michael , it's as if we see exactly what Michael see's as we enter the house and wonder through each of the rooms and up the stairs toward his family members.
The soundtrack over the top is very shaky, consisting of violins playing quite fast, short little notes , and they get louder and louder until Michael strikes. there's also the Diegetic sounds of screaming when he stabs his sister as she shouts his name. Again when he goes to kill his dad , he shouts his name as he's coming towards him , and then screams a little when he's strangeling him.
The editing is used quiet effectivly , when Michael puts on the amsks before killing people it's as if the camera has gone inside the mask too as they have blacked out the room apart from two little parts making it look liek they are eye holes in the mask whilst it's on his face. The slow motion too as the camera slowly goes around the corners helping to create a more dramatic effect, adding to the atmosphere.
ZOMBIELAND
ZombieLand is a film created in 2009 showing you step by step rules on how to survive a zombie apocalypse, as well as it being a horror movie it also has a comical side to it as well. The film is about an epidemic of cow disease that's spread throughout America, that leads to people being infected and turning into zombies.
The main charater Columbus travels through the deserted city in hope of trying to find his parents picking up innocent companions Wichita, her sister Little Rock and Tallahasse along the way. telling you about his rules to survive.
The editing in the opening sequence uses slow motion really well , you are able to see the expressions on the peopels faces as they are running away from the zombies , as well ast the hungry look on the zombies faces as they are trying to eat the people. You can also see all the different scenarios in which the zombies attack i.e at a wedding, in the street, on the toilet or in the supermarket, it helps you understand what the films about. The names of the rules are also printed along side the death such as " The second rule : Double tap.".
Throughout most of the opening trailerits mainly the main character Columbus who speaks , telling you about all his rules and how he's survived , but also how this epidemic has effected the world , as well as being a main character he is also the marrator. Toward the end of the clip the sound track of Metallica's - For Whom The Bell Toll's is played , giving it an ironc twist , it's also played synchronus to the clip as at the very end the song ends in a loud bang just as the zombie crashes through the windscreen.
The mise-en-scene is set around the whole of America as they travel from state to state trying to flee from the zombies. The characters wear normal, everyday, casual clothing compared to the zombies who are all covered in blood, with parts of flesh hanging from them, following the 1960's ' blood freak' role, it being mainly for people who love blood and seeing people get eaten and ripped apart. Guns and weapons also play a big part within the props, as they are used throughout the film to kill the zombies , showing the more violent side towards the characters, that they arent affrain to use a gun for their own protection.
DOG SOLDIERS
For the fith and final film i have chosen Dog Soldiers. Dog Soldiers is about a squad of army soldiers that get flown into a forrest on what they think is a routine training mission but things change when they realise that they are dealing with werewolves and not men.
The characters are mainly a group of soldiers who all stick together to fight off the werewolves. they all go and stay in this abandoned cabin in the woods, surrounded by forrest so they can attack from all angles.
The Mise-En-Scene for the film is based in a random forrest, the soldiers dont know about, They are all in army uniform with Guns and Knives , as well as what ever they can find in the cabin, the weapons are used quite alot in the film, showing the violence between them and the wolves.
The sound is straight foward, it's mainly the group of soldiers together talking , at first telling ghost stories and then shouting comands at each other when fighting off the wolves. The soundtrack over the top in the more thrilling parts is quite slow, and builds up creating tension, again mainly an orchestra/violins and the sound of wind passing.
During the scene where the soldiers first come across strange beings at round 21:58 the camera follows them into the abondoned camp then at 22:28 the camera pans around the sight quite fast, showing all of the guns and resources that the soldiers can pick up as well as all the eaten body parts and blood scattered every where adding to the atmosphere.
10 things that I will do in my coursework to keep within the genre
1) I will use appropriate costume and make up to help set the characters
2) The soundtrack used over the top will be quite erey/ orchestral to add to the atmosphere
3) I will follow one of the themes used i.e psychokiller or Contagion and Global Convergance
4) I will choose an appropriate setting to help create atmosphere, relating to the storyline.
5) Choose an appropriate story line that fits withing the genre ( not too comical or action based )
6) Decide whether I will use dialogue or have a silent horror movie like the 1920's
7) Make sure its appropriate for the targeted audience
8) Stick to the idea of the creation of a monster, it's the easiest way.
9) Follow Jung's theory and create a dark mystical feel to help create tension
10) use appropriate camera angles such as pan to reflect different areas , or use a jumpy camera to add to the tension.
Prelim Evaluation
What worked well about our Prelim task ?
Overall I think that we worked quite well as a group, we followed the main task, as we opened a door, used the shot/ reverse shot and stuck to the 180 degree rule as we didn't cross over the imaginary line and both characters stayed on the correct side.
What were the individual roles ?
Conor and Sonny both played the actors for the monologue as they were both willing to act and where they were both boys they fit in with our origional idea for the prelim, that boys stereotypically get into trouble more than girls at school, the typical ' boys will be boys' role.
Ennie shot most of the action, she shot Sonny pushing the button for the door to open, and him walking through the doors on one side. She also shot the monologue between Sonny and Conor.
I shot one scene, where sonny walked through the doors and toward the bench to sit down and talk to Conor. I mainly edited the clip as I had had past experience but with help from most of the group as they had ideas on how it should have been edited as well.
Improvement
I think that we could have chosen a better setting for the Prelim task, origionally we thought it would be quite a quiet place, but we thought wrong, there were alot of people walking through the shots to enter and exit the school, or some people didn't realise we was filming so they walked straight through the shot which meant we'd have to stop and film it again. The staff had also put important papers and rejesters on the benches that we was using so it was hard to shoot the monologue without moving the papers. There was hardly any space behind the benches either which made it hard to get behind Sonny and Conor to get a good shot/reverse shot.
The natural lighting from the front doors was also very bright, this meant that in one clip when Sonny walked through the doors, he looked very dark as the background was more over powering in the shot.
We needed alot more footage as when it came to editing the footage was limited and we didn't have alot to choose from, alot of the footage had been taken of the floor or was quite jumpy.
We also wasted alot of time filming due to silly things such as we only realised half way through that Sonny should have had his hood up, as that's how conor drew it on his story board. If we was to film it again i think we definatly would have needed to change the location to somewhere far more quiet and spacious so that we could move with the camera more and get a better quality of shots, this way we would have also got alot more footage and would have had a wider choice when editing and creating the final product.
What did I discover about the production process ?
I've discovered that the production process is bigger than I thought, it's down to getting the perfect setting so that it's not too noisey or quiet depending on what your'e filming. That surroundings are important too, such as natural lighting reflecting off of the the characters during a shot, The back drop also needs to be appropriate or if you generally dont hvae enough space to film. Editing has to be spot on too, there can't be too much space at the beginging or end of a clip as it interferes with the next one. And that it's good to add a final clip in the end with all our names and roles that we did as it makes it look more professional.
Overall I think that we worked quite well as a group, we followed the main task, as we opened a door, used the shot/ reverse shot and stuck to the 180 degree rule as we didn't cross over the imaginary line and both characters stayed on the correct side.
What were the individual roles ?
Conor and Sonny both played the actors for the monologue as they were both willing to act and where they were both boys they fit in with our origional idea for the prelim, that boys stereotypically get into trouble more than girls at school, the typical ' boys will be boys' role.
Ennie shot most of the action, she shot Sonny pushing the button for the door to open, and him walking through the doors on one side. She also shot the monologue between Sonny and Conor.
I shot one scene, where sonny walked through the doors and toward the bench to sit down and talk to Conor. I mainly edited the clip as I had had past experience but with help from most of the group as they had ideas on how it should have been edited as well.
Improvement
I think that we could have chosen a better setting for the Prelim task, origionally we thought it would be quite a quiet place, but we thought wrong, there were alot of people walking through the shots to enter and exit the school, or some people didn't realise we was filming so they walked straight through the shot which meant we'd have to stop and film it again. The staff had also put important papers and rejesters on the benches that we was using so it was hard to shoot the monologue without moving the papers. There was hardly any space behind the benches either which made it hard to get behind Sonny and Conor to get a good shot/reverse shot.
The natural lighting from the front doors was also very bright, this meant that in one clip when Sonny walked through the doors, he looked very dark as the background was more over powering in the shot.
We needed alot more footage as when it came to editing the footage was limited and we didn't have alot to choose from, alot of the footage had been taken of the floor or was quite jumpy.
We also wasted alot of time filming due to silly things such as we only realised half way through that Sonny should have had his hood up, as that's how conor drew it on his story board. If we was to film it again i think we definatly would have needed to change the location to somewhere far more quiet and spacious so that we could move with the camera more and get a better quality of shots, this way we would have also got alot more footage and would have had a wider choice when editing and creating the final product.
What did I discover about the production process ?
I've discovered that the production process is bigger than I thought, it's down to getting the perfect setting so that it's not too noisey or quiet depending on what your'e filming. That surroundings are important too, such as natural lighting reflecting off of the the characters during a shot, The back drop also needs to be appropriate or if you generally dont hvae enough space to film. Editing has to be spot on too, there can't be too much space at the beginging or end of a clip as it interferes with the next one. And that it's good to add a final clip in the end with all our names and roles that we did as it makes it look more professional.
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