Actual Coursework Task

25.10.2014

Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

Final Prelim

22.10.2014

This is our Final Prelim

Prelim Editing Part 2

22.10.2014

Editing the Prelim Part 2

During our lesson on Monday the 20th of October, we continued to edit and put together our prelim shoot.  As it was the last session that we were going to have to work on it before it was uploaded onto YouTube we had to work rather fast to get everything done.

 I missed part of the lesson, and when I arrived a bit late Ollie had joined Lauren to help her get it done, luckily there was still a little bit left to do so I had some input into the final piece. We looked through the work that we had done in the previous lessons and added the final shots that we needed to in order to bring the piece together.

Even after we thought that we had put the whole piece together, when we ran it through there were a few errors, such as sounds not quite matching up with what we were watching. We then focused in on these few areas in order to get the storyline to run smoothly in the end.


Overall I believe that we managed to create quite a smooth running final piece, taking into consideration that none of us had ever done anything like this before.

Editing Prelim

15.10.2014

Editing the Prelim

Upon filming the scenes that we needed for our prelim we were then asked to go and edit them together to form one flowing sequence.  I was paired up with Lauren and the other three who were initially in our group went together.

The software that we used was called Adobe Premier, a new program that the school had only just gotten so we were some of the first to try it out.

To begin with we had to arrange the shots that we took into a Rushes File, we then watched all of the shots and named each shot accordingly, so that when we went back to find the ones that we wanted to use we didn't have to look through all the clips each time.

We then had to set up a new folder called 'Log Bin' and in this file we took and copy and placed all of the shots that we wanted to make changes to and use in in the final sequence. We took copies of the ones that we wanted to use so that we still had all of our originals just in case we needed then at a later date.

Considering that neither Lauren or I had ever really done any editing before we managed to get quite a lot done in the time that we had.  We still have quite a bit left to do but what we have thus far we are very happy with.

I personally found it very difficult to put the clips together as when we attempted to put two different clips into one sequence sometimes the sounds in each wouldn't quite match up.  But, after attempting a few different ways to try and make it match, we made it sounds alright in the end. Apart from the problems with the sounds we didn't come across too many other problems in our first attempt.

Some Photos:

Recording the Prelim

9.10.2014

Recording Our Prelim

On Thursday the 9th of October we were asked to record out first sequence using all that we had previously learned in out camera lessons.  I was teamed up with Crerar, Lauren, Ollie and Ben.  We were given a sheet of different frames that we had to film, which included many different angles such as ;wide shot, close ups, POV, and over the shoulder's. 

This is the second of the storyboard that we were asked to film:

                                             

We were then asked to take this a bit further and come up with out own storyline to go with the scene. Our group decided upon the idea that Crerar and Ollie would act as two lovers, and decided to interpret the script that Ollie was pleading for Crerar to tell her husband about the relationship that they were in.  Although we decided on a very serious topic, we added some comedy to it by making Ollie convey his lines in a Sottish accent.

Overall I believe that out group worked really well together, even though when we first started shooting, we couldn't take Ollie seriously with his accents. Which therefore ended with a few giggling fits, but once we got down to it we worked really well as a team. Each person in the group was assigned a specific task to do which led to a smooth a tranquil fliming.

In order to portray the story that we wanted to tell towards the end we agreed as a group that we had to add a few more of our own shots to the storyline.  These included a close up of Crerar's phone, allowing the audience to see her looking though photos who presumably was her husband.  We wanted to ensure that people fully understood our story line so by showing photos of Crerar with her 'husband' they would be able to tell that Ollie wasn't that same person that was in the photos.

Photos of the Filming

We were in the studio which had a very basic set put up in the middle of it consisting of, as you can see, a sofa, table, and a door. 

Ben, Lauren and I were in charge of filming whilst Ollie and Crerar were the actors for the scene.

We suffered with a few minor problems on set, such as the door falling off its hinges, but luckily we had a teacher to help guide us.  But, overall it was down to us to get the right shots that we wanted.

Sexy Beast Opening Title Sequence Analysis

26.9.2014

Sexy Beast Opening Title Sequence Analysis

Clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps2WwRjvQkY

Genre:  This movie is a crime movie, we can tell it is during this sequence by the following reasons;

•  The man lives in a very desolate are, thus suggesting that he may be hiding from something that he may have done at some point.
• He lives in a very posh house, but he himself doesn't seem like a very posh person, therefore suggesting that he has gorton a lot of money somehow, but maybe not in the right way.
• When the boulder rolls down the hill at the end he doesn't seem very phased by it which may indicate that he is used to violence or surprises, which may suggest he is in an industry that involves a lot of it
• There is also a sense of a comedic atmosphere to this sequence, I personally thought that it may have been a comedy more than anything when I watched it, before I looked what the genre actually was. Even the title of the movie registered as more of a comedic movie that anything else. 

Music:

• The music is much more upbeat that in The Shining, also why I thought that it may be more of a comedy. 
• The music is very lighthearted, although during a lot of the opening sequence the main character, Ray Winstone, is talking.

Introduction to Characters:

   

• Throughout the sequence we get introduced to 3 characters; the main guy, played by Ray Winstone, the pool boy and a woman driving in her car.
• We, the audience, presume that the first man we see in the clip is the main character because we see the most of him, and also because he is the narrating what is going on at the start. 
• We are not too sure who the woman is but because there is a clip of two hearts in the pool next to the man which then cuts to the clip of the woman indicates that she has some sort of relationship with the main guy.
• Judging by the fact that she is also driving away from us, we can make an educated guess that she is driving towards the other guy.

Production Information:

• There is a very prominent Film Four advertisement at the begging to let the audience know who produced the film.
• information presented is in a very small font, and isn't placed right in the middle of the screen.  This is because the focus on the audience should be on what the main actor in saying at the time, and if the font was too big and obnoxious people would be focusing on that instead.
• We get a lot of information at the start of the film, mainly who the actors are but also what company produced  it: Film Four.

Camera Lesson With Adam

20.09.2014

Camera Lesson With Adam

In the camera lessons with Adam we learnt about the three main types of camera angles which are almost guaranteed to appear in any film out there.  They are; the close up, the mid-shot and the long shot.

The close up

Close-ups vary from extreme close ups to the head to shoulders shots.  The main use of close-ups in to convey emotions, a  director may use to have a close-up during an individuals face during a scene to show how they are feeling, so the audience gets a sense of their emotions.  

The Mid-shot

Mid-shots usually show and individual from the waist up, helping to show the audience both the character and what is going on in the background. They are used a lot when a character is creating big gestures, so the audience can see all of their body language.  With a mid-shot you get a better idea of what is going on overall in a scene, but loose some of the intimacy that a close-up has. They also are used when more that one person is being shown in a scene, they help to convey the relationships between individual.

The Long Shot

This type of shot shows a lot of what is going on in the background of a scene, sometimes known as an establishing shot as the audience get to see where a specific scene is taking place, helping to put the whole scene into context.  There is very little intimacy in a long shot as the individuals in a frame are being seen from quite a distance so it is hard to get a sense of their emotions which is why long shots are usually followed up by close-ups.

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