AS Prelim

The name of the piece was 'Yes, actually!' and the genre was Romantic Comedy. The narrative was a nerdy boy gained the courage to ask the popular girl to go to prom with him. She initially refuses but he manages to change her mind.


1) Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

The group

 I worked with Prudence Cater Phillips, Gabriel Meytanis and Joshua Oranu-Noah. To manage the task we worked as a group and individually. As a group we came up with the title, the idea and the dialogue. We decided on camera placement and did the blocking and walk throughs. My role was that I acted in the video, drew the storyboard, designed the room set up and did the initial plan of the script.

2) How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?

Storyboard showing the first two shots. Shot types, duration,
action transitions and possible problems.

We planned our sequence using the processes of creating a storyboard, a top down plan of the room with camera positions marked on, a prop list and shot list. We then cast the roles, created the script, blocked the movement and did walk-throughs. Theories that we tried to take into account were continuity ones such as match on action and eye-line matches. Because of the brief we also focused on the 180-degree rule and incorporated shot/reverse shot. We took genre, character and narrative into account as we wanted to create a clear story that made sense and fitted into the genre of Romantic Comedy. We wanted the characters to be very like the stereotypes of the popular girl and nerdy boy and to achieve this we used signifiers such as a mobile phone and leather jacket for the girl and nerdy glasses and pens for the boy.




3) What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it? 

Technology in shooting: 

Me editing one of our first shots. 

• Cannon Hfg30 camera
• a tripod
• a microphone
•  headphones

We used the tripod by having the camera mounted on it and used the tripod arm to move the camera smoothly in panning shots. We kept the camera on auto setting and used to zoom button when in one of the shots we changed from a mid shot to a medium close up. We used the mic to pick up the diagetic sound and dialogue and used the headphones to hear what the recording sound liked when we were filming.

Technology in editing: 

• PC based edit suites
• Adobe premier pro

We used the drag and drop tool to place the shots into chronological order. We cut shots, reordered the shots and synced them together to create a slowing timeline. To create continuity we used the razor tool to cut shots down by very small amounts (eg. fractions of seconds).



4) What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

 There were many factors we had to take into account otherwise the shoot would not have worked.

  

Room set up and some camera
positions.

Planning: 

• Amount of time we had and the number of tasks we had to complete. 
• Work out the set up of the room taking into account the 180 degree rule and camera positions. 

Filming: 

• The window in the room behind the table where most of the action took place. (when we were filming we could see the reflection of the camera in the window).
• Time- we only had an hour and twenty minutes to shoot all of our shots.

Editing:

• Time- we had lots to do and less than 2 hours to do it in.
• Continuity-making sure the shots matched up perfectly.

5) How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

Gabriel and I acting.

I believe that the sequence was very successful. We followed the brief completely by completing the action and demonstrating match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. We also demonstrated the following well: eye line matches, a master shot, varied shot types and we portrayed the events in real time. We achieved what we aimed to which was to establish the genre of Romantic Comedy, the juxtaposing characterisations and have a clear narrative. 

In hindsight, I would have taken more takes of the penultimate and last shots as in editing we were very limited with what we could do as none of the shots matched up with each other exactly.

6) What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?

The main things that I have learnt from this task are:

• The importance of good planning which will enable a good shoot.
• How easily continuity things in shooting (ie wearing glasses then taking them off in between shots) can be missed.
• How many things can go unexpectedly wrong when shooting.
• How much effort,time and skill goes into making even a one minute sequence. 

This learning will be very significant in completing the rest of my foundation coursework as it has shown me what planning, filming and editing are really like. It will help me stay motivated as I am pleased with seeing the finished product and have really enjoyed the task. It will make me maintain my work ethic and my need for everything to stick to time but it has also shown me how things can go wrong and that is alright as long as you can use that to improve.

Continuity Task 2 (BLK)

The sequence begins with an over the shoulder close up. This is effective as it shows where the two characters are in relation with each other but also clearly shows character A's facial expressions and emotions. At the end of the first shot there is a sound bridge where character B begins talking before the camera cuts to him and continuity is created through an eye line match when the shot changes. 

The next shot is another over the shoulder CU which clearly shows character B as he delivers a relatively long section of dialogue with many pauses in it. This shot is effective as it has a long duration of 14 seconds. By having the camera only showing character B it successfully shows his emotions such as worrying calmness when he asks "Why are you alive?" Also, because the shot is so long a reaction shot is seen after character A replies and it helps to slow down the pace of the sequence and disrupts the rhythm that had been created by the two previous shots.  

The shot then switches back to the first over the shoulder CU and I would presume that it is from the same set up. It then cuts very suddenly to an over the shoulder medium close up. The sudden cut and change of camera angle coupled with the loud volume of character B successfully shocks the audience. Also, in this shot, a slow and small pan left is introduced. This creates movement and adds momentum to the scene which prior to this had been very static and slow.

The shot then cuts back to a very short duration over the shoulder medium CU with a pan right as character B leans in. There is a match on action when it cuts to a close up on character B which shows him continuing to lean forward and the continuity of the sound of the chair also matches. The sequence concludes with a big close up on character B as he asks character A why did they let you live. This is effective as it draws in the audience as we want to know why he survived.  

In the sequence the 180 degree rule, eye line match, match-on-action and the 30 degree rule are successfully used and in terms of continuity, despite the use of cuts back and forth, it is very smooth.

Evaluation of AOTT Activity (DYM)

1) The film idea is about a young girl who is at a mental asylum. She becomes very deranged and starts killing off the other people that live there. In the opening we wanted to establish the main character and the setting which is both inside and outside of the asylum. The basic events of the opening is that she starts murdering people and begins to tally them off.

2) The kind of information that has been included in the film opening is the title, two actor's names and the different sides of the main character's personality. For example, she is a ruthless killer but also has a longing for a loving family.

3) The titles link to the main film idea as the main title 'playtime' reflects how she thinks killing people is fun and a game.

4) I would hope that the expected audience reaction would be a mix shock, fear and intrigue as the opening is relatively ambiguous and confusing. The audience should think about what has happened to the main character to make her act like this and maybe think to the future and worry about what she might go on to do.

5) Three things that are included in my grid that are important in the construction of a film opening are the title, setting and main character. The title's role in understanding the film is vitally important as it must have something to do with the story itself. In this case it reflects her young age and how killing is a fun game to her. The setting is important as an audience needs to understand and where the action is taking place otherwise the film could be too ambiguous if there was no idea of geographical location. The importance of the main character in the opening is to give the audience an idea of what to expect in the film.

6) I believe that my film opening is quite effective. It successfully portrays the characteristics of the main character and establishes the setting relatively well. It also shows quite a lot of action but the links between the events in grid form are not very clear. However, as an actual opening sequence I would hope that the narrative would be more clear.

Film Opening Analysis and AOTT Research (DYM)

  Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

• Genre: action, adventure, drama.
• The story takes place in medieval times- seen through the armor and swords in the title sequence and the time scale is a few weeks.
• Images of a medieval soldiers are mixed with a crow, a red dress, glass breaking and fire in the background. The order of events is not very significant to the story telling as it only shows certain aspects that occur at different points throughout out the film. For example, the battles take place at both the beginning and the end but the breaking glass is only seen towards the end of the film. 
• The events seem unconnected but the dark colour scheme links them together.
• No distinct characters are introduced but the idea of a male soldier and maybe a rich female woman are seen through the armor and the red dress.
• Not much story information is revealed to the audience as the events that are happening in the sequence are not very clear. For example, it implies that there is a battle but the importance of the crow, glass and dress are unknown but maybe deliberately withheld.
• At the start of this film I think that the audience needs to know or at least see more of Snow White to understand why the battle is seen and why the colour scheme is so dark and mysterious. Perhaps the huntsman could be eluded to as it is not clear if the soldier in the sequence is him or not.

Up (2009)

A very contrasting film opening to Snow White and the Huntsman is Up. It contrasts Snow White in the sense that the main characters are clearly seen because through the scrapbook effect we learn a lot about their personalities and things they do together. Another contrast is the type of music Up using a very upbeat, catchy orchestral piece whereas Snow white had a dark mysterious song my a female rock singer. Another difference is the pace of the opening with Up being quite fast and Snow White being slow.

The openings are similar because they have the titles incorporated into the action. 

The techniques that have been used in Up to communicate film information is the use of snapshots/stills and in Snow White symbolic images have been used such as the breaking glass and crow. 

The aesthetic style of Up is animated, bright/colourful with wide shots and close ups in the snapshots. On the other hand, Snow White is very metallic, masculine and dark with closeups and fade ups and downs.

Continuity Task 1 (BLK)

1) The story of my video is two characters (A and B) are walking down the corridor. Character B is oblivious of character A as she is on her phone and they crash into each other. Character A falls to the floor and drops his books but character B carries on walking then looks back right at the end.



2) I attempted to create narrative flow through a number of techniques/ideas. I attempted to re-position the actors back into their positions from the end of the previous shot as each new shot was prepared this was necessary because they came out of role/position to view the first take. Another way I attempted to achieve narrative flow was by re-shooting shots if they were not good enough to try to achieve fluidity between shots and continuity. A key technique I learnt whilst shooting to achieve narrative flow/continuity was to start the movement before the videoing began and then continuing after the shot ended, as the pause button took quite a long time to actually stop recording.



3) I did not achieve full continuity but I believe that I did quite well without using editing. In the first shot an establishing wide shot was used effectively as it gave a good sense of setting and character. In the first and second shots the use of cross cutting was effective as it helped to build up suspense and tension. However, the first and seconds shot look odd as both characters were walking straight towards the camera which made them look as if they were both walking in the same direction. I believe that the third shot was successful as it gave a good sense of direction and impending disaster. But the transition between the second and third shot was a bit jolty. In the third to fourth shot I attempted to pull the audience into the action by using a close up. Unfortunately, I did not completely get the match as the action was taken back a frame or two. A key problem in achieving continuity was in shots four and five where character A is seen falling twice. But in the sixth and final shot a very good sense of character was created by character A walking away still oblivious.



4) In hindsight I would improve the narrative flow and tell the story more effectively through a couple of changes. In the first and second shots I would position the camera so it stays on the same side of each character which would resolve the issue with direction. Also, in shot four and five I would trim the end of four before the books hit the floor so character A is not seen to be falling twice (once in each shot). Also, I would trim the ending of the sixth shot as you can hear our voices in the background. With implementing these changes and using editing I would hope that my group's 'Accident in Six Shots' would look something like this:

My Still Analysis (BLK)

In the still you can see a female hand reaching out on a green background coming from a black area. There is also a silhouette on the background.

I believe that the shot effectively portrays the genre of thriller/horror. This is because of the use of lighting and the use of a spotlight which creates a silhouette which is a signifier of horror. The lighting also creates areas of complete darkness which connotes evil and mystery and could lead an individual to question what lurks within it and is obscured from view. The brightness of the hand successfully juxtaposes the darkness surrounding it. Another signifier of the genre is that the nail varnish connotes that the character is a woman and in many horror films women are seen as more vulnerable in dangerous or threatening situations so this could lead an audience to worry for and empathise with the character.

To achieve the effect in the shot we used the pack lights on a white filter and held them close to the green background. The arm was placed in front of the lights to create a silhouette on the background. By having the arm not central but towards the lower right hand corner and by using as moderate high angle shot we were able to create the sense of vulnerability and desperateness. Also, by having the arm in the bottom corner it could imply movement and cause an audience to question where the hand is coming from and where it is or who it is going towards. We intended for the audience to read the sill as one from a horror film. We wanted them to possibly interpret it in two different ways. The first interpretation being that the arm is a plea for help or rescue and the other being that the arm belongs to the villain or 'monster'. Also, by not being able to see the whole character we hoped that an audience member would question what is happening and that the levels of fear would be heightened by the uncertainty.

In hindsight I would like to have had the opportunity to use makeup/art on the arm to make it look bloody and bruised or perhaps like a zombie to make it even more obvious that the genre is horror. I would also like to have experimented by using different colour gels to see the effects that they would have on the arm and the green background. Also, I would like to have tried to make the whole mise-en-scene darker, have a smaller are spotlighted and have blood on the green background.