Tuesday, 24 February 2009

Brain storming for final film




We had a brain storm prior to drawing up story boards and location hunting, in the session we agreed on what we wanted to achieve. We used apples Keynote

preliminary sequence Hunger

Preliminary sequence analysis

For our sequence there were four of us in the group, me and another started in the sequence and the other two filmed, before we started filming we spent a lesson brain storming ideas of what we could do we decided on a short clip of a man trying to change the world, the sequence has a small amount of dialog between to characters. After we had done this we then story boarded our sequence we did 12 frames, which were very detailed.

We shot the sequence in our school, this was the easiest and quickest way for us to shot the sequence as it didn’t involve spending time trying to find the right location. Shooting in the school also meant that if we needed to re-shoot a scene the environment wouldn’t of changed.
All we used to shot the sequence was two mini DV cameras and nothing else. The DV cameras were the only cameras available to us, although they have a low sound and picture quality it’s very easy to upload our sequence on to the Macs. The DV cameras also gave our sequence a good amateur feel. By not using tri-pods the sequence adopted the feel we wanted.

Our editing went very well as our continuity between cuts was excellent. Final cut pro was amazing as it meant we could edit the sequence to how we wanted it. The camera work went really well as we didn’t have to re-shoot any thing we had got all the shots we wanted and we wanted them. We didn’t face to many difficulties the only one was finding a key to the room we wanted but we found the key pretty quickly and didn’t waste too much time. Of course it would have been a lot better if we had arranged this first.

Overall the group and I are very pleased with our preliminary sequence because its turn out very well and is made to a high standard for our first major piece. To improve the seqence we could of used better quality cameras and better sound capturing equipment.
I have learn a lot of lessons from the sequence, I think for my next film i will use a tri-pod as it greatly improves the quality of the shot. I have also learned how to use final cut pro which I am still learning how to use. I have also learn that storyboards are key as they meant our sequence was easier to shot and quicker.


Here are a few screen shots of us editing our sequence,


We used final cut express


Here you can see the time line where we added non-diagetic sounds.


As you can see we have changed the out put volume of the music so the dialogue can be herd.



And finally we faded the sequence out to end the film.

Preliminary Task storyboards

Before we started filming our preliminary task we had to story board the scenes we wanted to shot.This was a great help as it meant filming was very easy.


Analysis of opening sequence

In order to understand the conventions of opening film we studied the opening sequences of films in a similar genre to the one we tried to create.


I’ve looked at the first 2 minutes of Panic room. The first thing you see is the indent of Colombia distribution. It then fades into an establishing shot of the new your sky line, there is non-diagetic slow tempo classic music playing the music helps create an atmosphere of fear and anticipation. The audience can also hear the sounds of New York, car horns and the general sounds of a city can be heard. There are credits on screen that introduce key actors and companies that are in the film. The credits have been edited in and don't add any to the feel of the film. During the opening sequence it cuts to about 10 different shots of the city, all the shots are long shots. Some of the shots are high angle and ariel shots these confirm to the audience that they are in New York the shots, joined with the music create a very eerie presence. The opening sequence tells the audience that the film is going to be action packed.

The music is slow tempo, low-pitched classic music. It has what sounds like deep string instruments, which give the sequence a real feel. Between each shot there is a quick cut but because it is shot in slow motion the cuts seem quite naturally and you don't notice them the music also contributes to this. As I have said it is shot in New York, the location for the film is inner city New York leading the audience to believe that the film may have a darker side acting to the audiences stereotypical view that films shot in inner cities will be darker and have a crime element to them, which the film has.

After the 10 shots of the city it cuts to 3 characters walking down a street, the area looks like the upper class area this scene is totally different from the initial shots. There is one obvious dominant character as she is doing all the talking and the audience is lead to believe she is that main character but in fact she isn’t, this is not typical of most films as the key characters are shown or have a big part at the start off the film.

All of these features help to convince the audience that some thing bad is going to happen, the music is the main contributor to this as the music rises in volume and pitch to create suspense.

Monday, 19 January 2009

woow my first blog

Hi i'm jack i'm 17 from windsor this is a blog for my as media course work. I will be using this blog to upload all of my course work.