Monday, 15 December 2008

Shot List

1. Starts with an establishing shot of the woods which slowly pans
2. Fades into another shot of the woods
3. It zooms in slightly to the woods
4. Cuts to a handheld shot on the track which slowly goes forward into the woods
5. This shot is then edited so it looks as if it is being played in reverse
6. Low medium shot of the bed table in focus and then man on the bed not in focus. close up on his hand goin to turn his alarm clock off then he picks up his phone
7. As the man gets up he comes into focus.
8. It then cuts to another corner of the room as he is getting out of bed
9. It then does a medium shot of him opening the wardrobe and getting his shirt out, then as he closes the cupboard door its cuts to him in the car and closing the door of his car blending both of the shots in, then a close up of him turning the key in the ignition.

10. then there is a shot of the car arriving at the crime scene with an eye line match from the driver with selective focus on the crime scene with out of focus objects in the foreground.
11.then it cuts to another character writing on a note pad with the main character walking up to him from behind.
12.a medium shot of the main charcter aproaching from the side of the other character.
13. then a few over shoulder shots as they begin dialogue.
14. during the dialogue there is flash backs (black and white) to what happend with the other character talking with a voice over when this happens.
Flashback Scenes
1. long shot of car arriving slowly at the scene.
2. man gets out and goes into the wooden hut and checks a briefcase left inside.
3. then a man approaches and quickly opens the shutter with the effect of a fake scare.
4. close ups on their faces during dialogue
5.long shot from behind the car lookin at the hut when they exit.
6.close up of hand opening car and guy getting in. the the other character approaches in the view of the car light
7.shot from inside the car through the drivers view.
8. medium shot of man walking then lookin to the side and another charcter hittin him with a brick(brick pulled away from his head, when edited played in reverse to look like hes been hit).
9. the driver panics, quicks cuts of face and briefcase in the passenger seat.
then qickly drives off.
10.The camera is then still as it looks down the path and we use a trombone shot to create an effect of a tunnel with the dead body in the middle.

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

Alternative Ideas

Atko's idea: Kidulthood based.-It would be set in school so it would be easy to film. With a death which causes a decision for the character.

Jimbob's idea: Scary Movie based - Taking the mick out of some horror films. Well known horror films so the audience can pick it up easily.

Monday, 8 December 2008

Storyboard Progress

We have done a few more sections on our storyboard and on our brainstorm which gives us the basic format of what our film is going to be like. We are about halfway through finishing off our planning.

Monday, 1 December 2008

The hills have eyes

His outfit and looks are of a stereotypical hillbilly and generally a shifty character. Also in his house it is dark, this contributes to the general feel of him being a bad character. The reactions of the other characters to him makes him seem as if he has an effect on the other characters adding to the tension of the piece. The opening sequence consists of a lot of close ups concentrating on a petrol station in the desert, the main focus being around parts of the area that look run down and untidy. Some shots that we mite steal from this film is the number of close ups on certain obects in the scene to create a good mood and atmosphere

Friday, 28 November 2008

The Girl on the Bridge

Tension is created through a wide variation of sounds, editing techniques and cinematography. The sounds are used well as there is alot of silence to create tension. also there is selected sound as the knives are thrown, this adds to the tension as the contrast in sound is used very well. There is also alot of close-ups and medium close-ups these show the reactions of the characters which also adds to the tension in the piece. There is also a lot of different camera angles around the curtains being closed which also has a tense effect. We mite use some of these techniques in our project because it has a good effect.

Thursday, 27 November 2008

The Darjeeling Limited

Through the use of colour in the darjeeling limited narrative is created using a number of techniques to create the right mise en scene. The main focus on colour is yellow. This is because it is a bright colour that relates to the culture of the setting of the first scene. Also it relates to happiness which fits the comedy genre of the film. The colours are all filtered so that everything appears more yellow. We may use a light filter in our piece, but use it to fit whatever genre our piece is, because it adds to the effect.

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Creep

Suspense is created in this film by using diagetic sound and silence. Also eary music is used to create suspense and the feeling something is going to happen. It also uses close-ups to show reactions which create suspense as the characters feel scared. The camera techniques conform to the normal horror convensions using techniques such as hand held camera work. The techniques we liked that we want to steal from this film are, the hand held camera work which gave the impression of the someone spying on the character. Close ups of the face to show certain emotions that can give a good effect on the rest of the film.

Thursday, 20 November 2008

Harry Potter

At the start of the film it shows the Harry Potter symbol. The camera then moves towards it and through it into a shot which is flying through the air. This is a better way of doing an establishing shot as it is more intresting. It then shows Harry sat down, the shot uses a wide lens to show more background than normal making Harry more isolated. Then when Dudley and his mates arrive the camera slowly zooms to each party on the matched cuts. This creates tension and is a good technique which we might use in our piece.

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Misdirection

We watched a film by Tom Edwards called misdirection. In this film there is a lot of skilled camera techniques and editing. For example, when it shows the book on the table it slow zooms, this is accompanied by the music getting louder. This also builds tension and gets the audience more involved with the film. Also at the start of the film there is a lot of quick cuts and obstructed shots showing the hecticness of the city. We would probably use these techniques in our piece as they are most effective to the audience's perspective.

Questionnaire Results

All of the people we asked were between 16 - and 20 years of age.

1 male.
6 females.
100% of these people go to the cinema 1-2 a month.

The results for the favourite genre and their reasons are as follows:

3 counts for comedy- " I like laughing", " because you can relax and enjoy it insted of being scared".
3 counts for Romantic Comedy-" you can relax and enjoy it".
2 counts for Action-"Because it my favourite".
1 counts for Thriller-"keep you on the edge of your seat".
0 for Horror.
0 for Family.
0 for Animation.

Favourite actor/actress results:

Daryl Hannah.
Kate Hudson.
Jake Gylentall.
Jonny Depp x 3.
Jason Statham.

Favourite film results:

SAW.
Die Hard 1.
Fear and Loathing.
Pulp Fiction.
I am Sam.
Almost Famous.
Kill Bill.
57% of these films fit into their favourite film genre.

The public feel that the best aspects of a thriller film should be:

Twist in the plot.
Enigma.
paranormal activity.
people getting killed.
tension and suspence.
psychological aspects.
something that fits the horror conventions such as darkness and isolation.
and something that is different and unique.

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Production Task: First Step

Our first step for the main production is to plan out using a story board our film and take pictures of the location describing lighting and mis en scene.

Production Task

We were asked to find a short story/poem to base our first ideas for preparation towards our main piece. We drew a storyboard of the piece and made a poster for it. The exercise was only intended to improve our skills and to be handed in as preparation for the main task. However we don't have to carry these ideas to our main project.

Next step

What we will do is a questionnaire to find out the audience's option on the piece and their view on how it could be improved from their perspective. This will contain some questions like, Good point, bad points and improvements etc...

Improvements for next time

We will probably find some suitable music for the next piece as ours was a bit rushed. We will also film in a more suitable place for the piece where there is less diagetic noise.

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Mis en Scene

The first shot was chosen to be taken just outside the room because it was a wooded area gave the impression that Atko was walking to a secluded place. We then chose to use the hall as it is usually a busy place but it was empty which gave the impression of secracy aswell.

Sound

For the sound we only used diagetic sound as we wanted to keep a sense of realism. The only sound we concentrated on was the dialogue from the 2 characters.

Monday, 10 November 2008

Camera Shots

the first was a tracking shot of atko walking along a path and down the stairs, this is also turned into a match on action when it cuts to a shot from inside the hall. This next shot was a medium shot of atko walking in the cameras direction. then when atko reached a certain point it cuts to obstructive medium/long shot, we did this because it gave the impression that the character was being spyed on because of the railing in the way of some of the shot, this also shows realism for the audience as something is in the way. Atko then reaches for the chair and it cuts in to a close-up as his hand touches it. Then when he sits down it cuts away to where the shot was before. This also created a match on action. It then cuts to a medium/close-up of atko sitting down. He then does some swift hollywood eye movement on the close up of his face, making an eyeline match as it cuts to a medium shot of Jim in the doorway. He then walks towards the camera and it cuts to an over the shoulder shot of Jim sitting down opposite Atko. Then the lines of dialogue continue as there is some shot/reverse shots from over the shoulder following the 180° rule. After the dialogue is finished, Atko gets up and walks to Jim as he puts his hand on his shoulder it cuts to a close up of Jim as Atko puts his hand on his shoulder.

Preliminary Movie

The object of the coursework was to film a character walking into a room, and sitting down on a chair and having a few lines of dialogue with another character. The project had to include the 180 degree rule and a number of different camera shot techniques such as, a match on action, eye line match and shot reverse shot. This project is only required to be at least 30 seconds long.