After filming

Post-production we returned to school and began discussing how the editing process will go and other tasks that needed to be started. The following are those tasks;

• Creating sound and choosing whether we wanted to use someones else's music or create/use our own piece.
• Create the Title opening and Production company logo

We began editing the following week, after a bit of fumbling with the Macs we managed to find a way to work on them well, Me and Georgia began editing a rough idea of what we want, while Emma and Catherine started work on the Company logo. The company name was decided to be Cage productions (created from the first initial from everyone's name), and our film Mother of Pearl in earlier lessons prior to filming.

We used the school macs to edit our film, we originally were going to meet up and do it my house, but we decided it would be better to do it in school and get it done before Christmas definitely.

 We roughly made our film, only using jump cuts and small effects, exploring Final cut express and thinking about the use of sound.

Meanwhile Emma and Catherine began and finished designing our Company Logo on PowerPoint, we are currently using the PowerPoint version (recorded using screen recording software), however I asked a friend to create a version in flash, but needs some work adding a gradient and that looks nice.

We also decided on the title screen font today.

Filming

A few weeks back, our group began and finished filming our main project. We met up at Emma's house during the afternoon and began to test shots and walk around the set. Surely enough after we had decided on the main work flow and if the camera angles and shots we picked worked or not (making changes where applicable), We began filming the main film, we worked mostly in order of how the piece goes, the only part that was different was the outside shot of Emma opening a window, which he had to do because night time was kicking in.

As well as filming I took a sample sound of Emma making distressed groaning noises with an external microphone to add later. The filming worked quite well, however a few things did did not go according to plan.

Firstly the red contact lens's we bought did not get used due to lack of practice putting contacts in, Catherine and Emma both found it difficult, and the lens's dried up, one lens was stuck in the small bottle they came in. We could have avoided this by using other contact lens's to practice before hand, so that both Emma and Catherine were confident before we filmed.

Secondly towards the end of the project we were starting to run short on time, after working out problems with the TV which showed the Play/Pause symbol whenever we stopped it, the camera ran out of battery, luckily I brought the old camera we used for the preliminary, which didn't look as good but unexpectedly added an interesting effect with it's increased level of noise in the footage. Some ideas as a result were lost, however we worked around it just fine and hopefully will produce a convincing-enough horror opening.

Below are photos and videos pre-production.

 The red contacts we bought to use, unfortunately they were fiddly and we didn't make sure Catherine and Emma were comfortable putting them in before hand.

 Emma by default had a big bear in her room in her bed, we thought it worked well with showing the audience how innocent Emma is.

 Georgia talking about certain ideas and recording them, behind her is a large wall stencil which we avoided showing.

 We looked at certain teddy bears and stuffed animals to further show the innocence of Emma

 Same as above

 We also looked at possibly including the little statues and the friend photo.

 We added small stuffed animals on to the big bear, him hugging them show how they are protected, yet Emma is vulnerable

 We tested out different lighting ideas and discussed how we want to do our shots

We payed attention to detail, trying to make sure there were no continuity errors.

 The free fake blood from my families shop proved to look more effective than we originally thought it would.

Catherine also took some photos behind the scenes.

Main project

 After deliberation with my group, we came to a conclusion on what roles we will all have and the things we need to improve.
The things we need to improve are:

• Concentration
• Composition of shots (Using Mise-en-scene to create effective lighting and camera angles/shot types)
• Costumes, Make up and Hair
• Location
• Times

The roles are as follows:

Catherine: Actress and photographer (Creating stills of Emma and Herself so we can use photo editing to help design costumes ideas etc.)

Myself: Cameraman and Editor (Shooting and stitching together the final piece, I will also be working closely in all departments)

Emma: Actress and Sound producer (We came up with the idea of creating sound effects and music for our piece, if it works well we will put it into the final video. Emma and Catherine can both play instruments, those being Guitar for Emma and Keyboard for Catherine)

Georgia: Director and behind the scenes (Me and Georgia will be constantly moving and examining the shots situation, if it is satisfactory or not. She will also document what we do as we create the video)

We are also currently choosing a suitable location/ suitable locations, our main idea involves mirrors and the use of eyes.

We did think of other ideas, we have a variety of locations and ideas present in case we do not feel the current idea is working.

Finished Preliminary task

Recently we finished our preliminary task, this task has given us a good idea of what we need to do for our main project and how we can use what we have learnt through this.
This is the finished video:

This video is the same but without any sound editing:

The silence of the lambs presentation - George, Ben, Toby and Dom

The opening of the film starts of in a different manner compared to films of a similar genre around the time. The opening shot pans on a forest with credits appearing suddenly on the shot, in the background there are lots of bare trees with fog concealing them, the scene seems calm, however the music suggests otherwise by giving a worrying tone in it melody. A crow squawks as the first few credits begin to show. The crow is a predator of nature and is heralded as being smart, possibly foreboding how the main character of the film will be preyed on later on in the film through the use of smarts from Hannibal Lecter. As the credits appear, they are in a Bold white outlined black font, appearing in the center of the frame, punching in and out suddenly, this contrasts heavily with how the scene is behaving, as the camera pans slowly the credits come in sharply, this possibly suggests how the film will change pace heavily later on.
As the camera pans slowly, tension builds up until we see Clarice climbing up the hill with a rope, retaining that tension as Clarice attempts to run the course quickly. The close up of her face shows how determined she is while running, this can relate to her later on when she is determined to find information on Hannibal. The music also intensifies, adding in higher sounds from violins, giving the impression she is being chased. The impression of her being watched through the use of a tracking shot is also apparent. As she comes down from the rope wall, the medium shots allows the light from the sun to show on her face, revealing the sweat, further reinforcing how determined she is.

The next scene takes place in a prison where Hannibal Lecter is being held. As Clarice and the man with her walk down the stairs, they are behind red bars, the red bars could signify the hellish environment behind them. When the two stop in front of the bars as the man tells Clarice about how Hannibal brutally attacked a nurse after lying about chest pains, the two are in red light, as he tells the story the red light shows how close to evil they are, the close up of Clarice's reaction to the photo is unsettling. The man however receives an extreme close up, showing how he is not moved by the event he is narrating, as he has probably seen worse since he works in the prison. The bars open and two walk through, Clarice begins to talk when a buzzing noise and the bars shutting interrupts her, possibly showing how she is now trapped. An over the shoulder shot is introduced after she suggests the idea of her going in by her self, in the background behind the man we see a white room with a security guard dressed in white too, possibly showing that the area where he is kept is not hell, but maybe a step further, the white may signifies nothingness, relatable to how Hannibal feels nothing when he kills and is always calm. After entering the room, a 360 degree shot begins to take place, firstly we see the CCTV system, in which we see the man running up the stairs, showing how he wants to get away from the area. As the camera pans we see the environment and people inside, such as the security guards and guns on the wall, this also shows Clarice is observant. After introducing herself and talking to Barney the guard, she walks through the next barred gate, again the gate closes and she is now trapped even more, with two sets of gates blocking the escape. When Barney tells here what to do, he says "He's past the others" referring to other inmate with the harsh word, possibly signifying they are not human. As she walks through the 3rd gate, which again closes further trapping her, the audience is shown p.o.v shots of the prisoners, showing the diversity of the inmates. We also see that the conditions of the cells are pretty standard and bare. However when she see's Hannibal, we immediately see he has a better condition than the other prisoners. Hannibal also is behind Perspex glass rather than bars, relating to how the man earlier told Clarice about the brutality Hannibal can cause if he can get near to people. This shows he is much more dangerous than the other inmates. After meeting him and introducing herself, Hannibal immediately recognises her as one of Jack Crawford's detectives, showing he is smart. Clarice originally came to the prison to question Hannibal, but straight away Hannibal is commanding her, he asks for her credentials, telling her to come closer and to sit. He then straight away begins to question her, showing he has the power.

Preliminary task preparation

For our Preliminary task we have made a few idea videos and photos of locations and shots we could use. The task is;
Show character A entering a room from a corridor and opening a door. Inside the room Character B is sitting down. Without saying anything A gives a piece of paper to B. B reads it and reacts. A displays some kind of emotion and leaves.

We have chosen to keep it horror themed, we are still currently discussing ideas and story boarding. However the following videos are ideas we have had.

This video was using the polarize effect to possibly induce a scary effect in the video.

This is a recording of the schools alarm sound, the idea is that once A is leaving B begins to chase, the alarm could possibly then be used.

We experimented with a Point of view shot when opening the door to add suspense and tension. Placing the audience in the Emma's position.

The low Angle Canted shot is going to be used to help show the fear Emma will feel when confronting Catherine.

In this long shot, Emma walks down the corridor and is startled when the lights begin to flicker. We hope to shoot this at night to add to the effect.

In this shot we used the pause to create a quick continuous edit of Emma walk and turning into the next shot. (note scary dancing)

This shot is similar to the one above except we experimented with using the location and changing to our will. Emma walks to the right, which in the school leads to an art room opposite to that in the shot, but we exploit that change of direction to appear at the other art room which contains a dark room.

The above three pictures are of other places we are considering filming for this task.

Silent Hill Analysis

For this task I joined Emma, Georgia and Catherine to analyse the opening of a horror/thriller film. The film we chose was Silent Hill, a film based off a video game series that is also of the horror genre. Below is the video in which we present our analysis.

The recording misses the end of the presentation due to time constraints.
After saving Sharron the camera pans as a long shot, showing the family all huddled together, but also showing a cross in the distance. All though the cross is illuminated by lights, at first it appears to be on fire, re-enforcing the religious connotation that later become predominant in the film. The idea of the burning cross also forebodes the "Evil Religion" that is revealed later on in the film. The long shot also strengthens the idea of how strong the family is, however the family is all curled up on the floor, showing they are all vulnerable.

Previous work I haven't posted here yet

So far we have had 3 weeks worth of lessons, however I missed a few lessons out from my blog.

One of those lessons was when we looked at the differences between fonts and the image they are with. The two logos were of Buffy the Vampire slayer.

and Casino Royale

The two logos show the difference between the two genres very clearly. Buffy the vampire slayer is more of a gothic style logo, which portrays an evil that is presence in the show, further enforced by an underlining which is also part of an inverted cross, a sign of the devil. Where as Casino Royale features a sophisticated serif font which is positioned to use 007's name within the title, the soft shining blue colour of the text gives a sense of mystery and classiness which are both features of the character James Bond, the font in Buffy the vampire slayers logo also relates to the plot with the gothic style text dripping blood, an occurrence that naturally happens in vampire based films or shows.

Analysing Silent Hill

On Wednesday we all met up to analyse Silent Hill, we watched the first 10 minutes an analysed different parts of the film, such as Sound, Camera, Editing and Mise-en-scene. We rewatched the opening 3 times passing around the role of analysis, we then watched the film until the group had to leave to do other things. Through this we got to start our analysis and take them away, we assigned each person a role to type up an analysis, we gave that person our notes of that technique and will now combine that for our presentation on Friday.

Lesson reflection

In this week we have made a few devleopments on our analysis of The Terminator 2. We carried on analysing the film, I carried on writing about Mis-en-scene, how the clothing and lights effect the character and audiences perception. We watched the last 2 scenes, in one Sarah is in the caravan park collecting weapons, she sits down and begins to monologue her feelings and views on how the old Temrinator is now good, and also like a fatherly figure. During this scene she was wearing sun glasses, so I commented on how sh was hiding behind the glasses, possibly feeling insecure and confused, using the sunglasses to masqurade how she was watching the two play around. During the same scene she had a dream similar to her last, in which the playground she dreamed about is destroyed, and all the cildren in it and her self being killed by nuclear explosion, I commented on how intense the red flames and light were, showing the sheer power of the explosion.

Me and my group have also decided on the film we are going to analyse and our idea for the opening of a movie.

Examining shots

Certain shots in film can give details that otherwise would have to be given in words. An example of this is when a character is weak, shots of them are usually high, where as the powerful character will have the shot from below.

Above is a Point of view shot, the shot allows viewers to view the scene through the eyes of the character. In this shot the background is blurred and bright, showing it as an almost dream like scene. In focus is a shot of the gun being held by the character, most of the gun is in the dark or darker than the shot in front, giving the impression that this character has been in a fight to escape an area. The door in front of him is very bright, showing the character has finally escaped, walking into the light.

In this shot, the character looks menacing and powerful, this is an impression given from the style of shot, which is a worms eye shot. The character in the film would feel intimidated by this character, the audience would recognize him as the more powerful character. This can portray him as a bully in a school, shown by his clothing. However in the background there are soft purple colours of flowers. This can also show that the character may be good instead of bad, or have a good side. The light around his eyes contributes to the impression of him being the bad guy, being darker than the rest of his face.

This week

So far this week I've done a few tasks. Firstly I presented my Mis-en-scene about a Canon Eos 400D advert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTADaUtdwvY)


I commented on various parts of the advert, mainly how the world is portrayed as a play ground. At the start of the advert a dozen people are sky diving down to earth. Each person lands in different locations, each different from the other, for example A man lands in a city while a Girl lands in a forest. This showed how the camera is built to be used anywhere by any one. The characters are all wearing casual clothing, further supporting the idea of usability. The lighting in the advert is pleasant and natural. It provides some nice scenery rather than putting anything in the limelight, this is because most people who want to start photography usually have the idea of taking photos of landscapes. However the varied locations show the camera is usable anywhere, landscape photography can be done in the forest, meanwhile in the city the camera can be used for street photography and urban photography.


I also created images in a group showing the different camera angles you can use in a film. We discussed how each one can be used to reveal details and inform watchers. For example an extreme close up can give the impression that the character is evil or sinister, however it can also be used to show emotions, such as a single tear dropping from someones eye. 


We also watched and discussed different films and genres. How a plot usually goes for each genre (stereo typically atleast) and what the cast consists of, such as how a comedy usually has one man or woman attempting to do something, such as win over a lover or complete a task but failing to do so in comedic ways. We analysed a few scenes from Terminator 2, in which we observed how the way James Cameron directed the film to show certain attributes to Sarah Connor, such as how one scene starts with her excersising, showing her as a strong woman, and how the light from the window is always on her through each scene, giving the impression she is the good character, the one chosen to save the day.
Aswell as that  we examined 3 trailers and talked about how we know what Genre each film was, such as how There's something about Mary was a comedy, shown in how the main characters are all put in funny situation, and how Gladiator was a historical epic, with all the fighting action and powerful speeches.


So all in all an eventful week so far.
Later 

As Media

Today I made my As media blog. I'll be using this to report my reflections over the year, I can see this being very useful.