MAIN- POST 1- Conventions of an Opening Sequence

From looking at a couple of opening sequences of films I have worked out what the conventions are of most opening sequences. All opening sequences have text bringing up the most important peoples names, these are usually the most famous actors/actresses, producer and direct. The opening sequences usually have images or clips of the film and they are mainly little clips letting an in site on the film to the audience. Different genres of films will use different colour schemes for instance most horror films have a lot of black and grey colours to give a gloomy effect whereas family films and comedies are bright and colourful.  The last convention is music from watching the clips the title sequences include music this also goes with the genre of the film, action films having quite upbeat music whereas romantic films have soft acoustic music.

This is a comedy, alot of comdies have cartoon clips like this as there title sequence and have bright happy colours to reflect the genre through colour, the music was also happy bubbly music.

This is a horror film, a lot of horror films are very dark and gloomy with colours like grey and black, these are rarly in cartoon and mostly motion pictures to make it more realistic and scary

Post 12: Independent work towards targets

• To be more creative when scriptwriting

http://www.ridingthealligator.com/creative-screenwriting-fresh-ideas-make-for-success.html
This website was very helpful when trying to be more creative with writing scripts as it gives good tips to make sure you are being creative and writing something that is interesting.

Post 11: Targets

Targets:

• To be more creative when chosing a storyline
• Plan the availble time more efficiently
• More detailed script writing
• Practice different shot sizes so we get them right in the next task

Post 10:Evaluation

From studying media studies in GCSE I already had the skill needed at A-level. I already knew how to use the camera/film how to do the pre-production and how to use the editing suits. So from the preliminary task i have improved the skills I already had and learnt so extra areas of the course like post-production which we didn’t do last year.

From watching the clip and analyzing it our group decided that we could of improved on the shot sizes that we took, some of the shot sizes be planned to have aren’t the same in the clip. I think we had problems with the footage according to shot sizes as we rushed some of the footage as the room we chose was hard to get to and in frequent use. Another problem we have noticed from looking back at the footage is lightening, I think we could of worked on the lighting and thought and planned better whether the lightening looks good and how we could improve it.

Post 9: Post production report

We started the post production process by capturing the footage onto the editing suit computers. We then went through the footage and noted down the start time and end time of each shot into a logging rushes table which was done in a word document.


 Logging Rushes

 Once we had finished the Logging Rushes we went on to the editing stage, we looked back through the footage and looked at our logging rushes and worked out which shots were the shots we decided we were keeping. We decided which shots we were going to keep by looking at which clips had the best shot angles, lightening, and acting to see if there was any faults or errors. We started the first part of editing by cutting the footage into sections we then dragged the selected piece of footage onto the timeline, once every clip we wanted was in order and fitted well together we started to edit the sound. 

The first part of the sound editing stage is arranging the sounds levels so the footage sounds even. We added fading markers to the start and finish of each shot insuring that they are in a continuous order of up down up down. By adding in the fade markers this makes the contrasting shots volume levels sound softer with the transition.

Our final stage to the editing of our footage was adding in any final effects we wanted. The first effect we decided to add was the cross fades; we added this to the start of our footage and also to the start of our title. The cross fade blends in the start of the shot to make it visual at the end of the cross fade. The second stage was adding a title to the start of the footage and credits to the end of the footage. We used the 'add new title' tool and wrote down the text we wanted to appear, changed the colour of the font and the style. We chose the font in the picture below because it looked snazzy and was attention grabbing; we chose the colour blue as the genre of our film is sad so we thought blue would be a good colour to represent this. For the credits I used the same tool expect clicked on 'moving title' we once again wrote the text we wanted to appear and selected it too start of screen and finish of screen so it rolled like credits. In the picture below we have the credits as just plan white so it stands out and people watching the clip notice it.

We wanted to include some music to the start of our footage and the end, unfortunatley we ran out of time, we also wasn’t prepared when we came to editing to add music as we hadn’t chosen any and didn’t have a clip with us. We changed the font style of our title and took away the shadow so it was clearer and looked more professional. We also changed the credits so the title of each credit came up with the same colour as the font in the title so it matched and looked professional.

This is the start of our editing process this picture is of the time line

This is part of the music viewing

On this clip we have added the cross fade to our footage



In this clip we are adding the fade markers



This is a preview of our title

This is a prewiev of our credits

Post 8: Pre-Production Report

The first shoot didnt got well, we asked the owner of the location if there room was free to use but couldnt find her to get the key, we finally found he and she told us it would be free but she was using her room. This was a problem as it made us behind oh shooting, we recovered this problem by booking a time and and planning when to get the key with the owner to insure that everything went to plan an we could film.

We started filming and everything went well, we had to move some objects in her room which were in the way of shots and when filming outside the room we were very weary of other pupils passing by. We planned to finish all the filming in the same session but unfortunatly wasnt able to film some close ups she we made sure the actors were wearing the same outfits to prevent any contuinity and filmed in the next avaible time slot.

We worked very well as a time and this helped us get the filming done quickly we helpped eachother out with what looks best and what if the shot sizes were right ect. 

From watching it back we focused on looking at the amount of head room and spair space in each shot according to what we planned on our story board, we checked that all the shots we had were suitable to take forward to editing. There was a problem when looking back as we thought the close up we did were close ups but they were actually medium shots so the variety of shots werent as many as we wanted.

Post 7: Additional Pre-production Documentation

This is our risk assement me inspected the area and analyised the risk

This is our Shooting Schedule, we found out what days our location was free and planned when it would be a good time to shoot.

This is our cast and crew/ props and costume list, we look at our location to see what props we already had avaiable the thought about that a real doctors surgery would look like and though up of external props.

 

This is our location recce, we went to the location and took pictures to look like yuo could see the whole area of the location we were planning on using.

Mise-en-scene Description

Set Design/ Location

Our preliminary task is set in an office in the school, we choose this office because it’s small like a doctor’s office, and it has dark blue carpet and cream walls and 2 windows that create a natural lit environment also coming from the fire exit door.

Lightening

There was natural lightening coming through the back two windows and the fire exit door and the natural lightening from the corridor when the door was open and through the windows in the door. We used the lights which were on the ceiling running vertically down with 3 lights parallel each side of the ceiling this produced artificial light.

Props

 We had a desk with a computer on it and lots of files to create a realistic image of a doctors office, there was a chair in front of the desk for the patient and chair behind the desk for the doctor.

Costume

MARC= black trousers stripped shirt with tie and a dark cardigan with smart black shoes.

CHLOE= Fur coat dark peach top with leggings and tanned boots.

We chose these costumes so that marc looked smart like a doctor and Chloe looked casual like a patient.

Hair and makeup

MARC= hair, N/A. Makeup N/A

CHLOE= hair, natural.  Makeup natural

We kept the hair and makeup very basic as marc needs to look working class and Chloe is an ill patient.

Character Movement

Chloe enters the room by knocking on the door and entering the room; she walks to the chair and sits down. Marc starts dialogue with Chloe by asking her how she is feeling today the have a discussion about Chloe’s results; marc tells Chloe she is terminally ill. Chloe breaks down into tears and gets up and leaves the room shutting the door behind her.

Post 4: Script Writing

This is my annotated Script





There are some contiunity issues with our script. The first problem is in the stage directions, Chloe knocks on the door this will need to look exactly the same and the same postion everytime we film this shot to ensure the shot doesnt look jumping in the finished product. Another section of the scipt where we might have problems with contiunity is with chloe crying, this part of the script is being shot from behind Chloe and infront, to insure it looks good in the final product we will have to make sure that all the movements are the same and that whatever actions Chloe makes will be repeated in the next shot of this certain shot.

Post 5: jump Cuts, Over-the-Shoulder Shots, Cutaways and Point of View Shots

Definitions

Jump Cut: A cut to later action from one filmed scene to the next, creating an effect of discontinuity or acceleration.
Over-Shoulder-Shot: In film or video, an over the shoulder shot (also over shoulder, OS, OTS, or third-person shot) is a shot of someone or something taken over the shoulder of another person. The back of the shoulder and head of this person is used to frame the image of whatever (or whomever) the camera is pointing toward
Cutaway: A brief shot that interrupts the main action of a film, often to depict related matter or supposedly concurrent action.
Point of view shot: (also known as POV shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction (see shot reverse shot). The technique of POV is one of the foundations of film editing.

over shoulder shot

jump cut shot

Cutaway shot



point of view shots





Post 6: Shot List and Story Board

This post will display our groups shot list and storyboard part of the planning process for our preliminary task.



This is our groups Shot List

Section B : The thought process to our shot list was mainly thinking about the area we have avaliable to film in and how the shot sizes would like on camera. We also looked at the script to see when  the most emotion is show in the actors, this determined what shot sizes to use, of instance chloe is crying near the end of the script so we chose a close up to show chloes emotion.

Storyboard Section A

 



Post 3: Contiunity

1. Definition for 'continuity' in the media context http://www.allbusiness.com/glossaries/continuity/4948953-1.html


2. Continuity:Contiunity is when there is an outstanding theme throughout a advertisment or piece of advertising.

3. Definition for 180 degree rule http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/transition/reverse-cut.html

180 degree rule/ Crossing the line:  This is when you have to keep the camera within the field of 180 degrees. This is also called crossing the line this is when if you are filming on one side of the actor you cant cross over the line that goes through them you can only move left and right.


Definiton for Shot reverse shot http://dictionary.infoplease.com/reverse-shot

Shot reverse shot :  Shot reverse shot is when one character is looking at either another character or off screen, and the the other character is shown looking back at the character just shown, this will look like they are facing eachother.

Definition for Match on action www.waikato.ac.nz/film/handbook/glossary.html

Definition for Match on action:   Connects two shots cut together by having a character finish an action in the second shot begun in the first shot. For instance, if a character lights a match in the first shot, the same
character will draw it up to a cigarette in the second.

3. Here is a scan of my work displaying the 180 degree rule/ crossing the line, and shot reverse shot

Post 2:Storyboard Drawing, Shot Sizes, and Framing

Post 2: Storyboard, Shot Sizes and Framing

Here is my Storyobard work, I have drawn every shot size that is usuable when filming, and the shots needed when filming a coversation between too people.

Photos representing the shot sizes

Here are photos representing the shot sizes used when filming.

'Long Shot'

'Shot'

'Reverse Shot'

'Extreme Close Up'

'Close Up'

'Medium Close Up'

'Medium Long Shot'

Rule of Thirds Research

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds

 The rule of thirds is a principle where you break the image into 3rds vertically and horizontally this will break the image into 9 sections. By using the rule of thirds it indicates the four main points of interest you should focus on as the main areas of the image. By having a main feature on the line people will be drawn to that feature of the picture.

Post 1: Preliminary task

A task involving filming and editing a short film of someone opening a door, crosing the room and sitting down on a chair opposite the other character where they exhcange a couple of lines of dialougue.