Preliminary Task: Evaluation

Preliminary Task:

The planning which my group, and I did, helped the filming process much easier to do. We started off with an A4 piece of paper which we written down some very simple ideas for a plot for our preliminary task. We then started to think about which would be the best to film, and why it would be. This A4 piece of planning helped us to keep to our roots when filming and to make sure we didn't completely change our plot while filming. After we figured out what our preliminary task should be, we started to discuss the different camera angles we would use. After many suggestions about what camera angles to use and how they would be effective in our plot/story, we then started to talk about how our story boards should look like. The story boards we created where our backbone to fall upon when filming. This is because we had something to go by, and keep to. Although we changed a few things which weren't originally present on our story boards, we thought that the changes we made where a good thing.

The 180* Degree Rule

While filming, we had to be very careful about the 180degree rule. The 180degree rule is when 2 people (for example) are in the same scene and should always have the same left and right relationship to one another. If the camera crosses over an imaginary axis called "The Crossing Line", the opposite shot is called "The Revere Angle". This rule is very important and we had to consider it when filming our Preliminary Task. This is because if you brake this rule, your audience watching will feel confused as the characters or objects seem to appear in a different location. It is very important to keep to the 180degree rule so that your audience does not become confused. We successfully filmed our Preliminary Task without braking the 180degree rule as we thought about how and what camera angles would be used to prevent braking this important rule.

We used many different camera shots in our Preliminary Task. These included:

• High Angle
• Long Shot
• Tilt Shot
• Birds Eye View
• Tracking Shot
• Over the Shoulder
• Close Up
• Panning

We started our Preliminary Task film with a High Angle Tilt Shot which showed a long narrow hallway. This shot established the location so that the audience would understand where the scene takes place. The tilt angle wasn't originally in our story board. We agree that if we added the tilt it would add more variety to the mise-en-scene instead of using a slightly "dull"  horizontal high angle shot. This shot would eventually pan while following the character in the scene. The second shot was a horizontal panning shot. This shot was used to give the audience a sense of the character to continue moving down the hallway but from a different location. After this shot, we cut to a tracking shot. We follow the character down the hallway until we get to the end. Myself then came up with a cleaver idea that "what would happen if someone comes round the corner, and we follow them instead?". We used this idea of mine, not to confuse the audience about what is happening, but instead try to add more variety and originality to our Preliminary Task. Now we follow our 2nd character. The 3rd shot was a Birds Eye View. This is to give the audience a sense of scale of the hallway and the location of the scene. The shots after our Birds Eye View where mainly Over The Shoulder and also a few Close Ups. These where used to make the conversation between the characters more fluent and interesting. It also adds an effect that the characters are nearly talking to the audience.

Our film was finally finished. We then had to capture it onto the computers and edit it. I learnt many things while taking part in filming and editing the film. When filming I learned that if we wanted our film to look professional we needed to have continuity with the costumes. Have continuity in our Preliminary Task, we needed to film some scenes twice as we didn't use the same clothes. I have learned that we need to plan what to wear next time when filming a media production. When editing, I learned how to use the school's editing software and how to capture the film onto the computer. After I became familiar with the software, editing was very simple to do. 

In conclusion, I highly enjoyed creating our Preliminary Task and getting back into media production since high school. Working with people who I know (James Kent) and others who I've became friends with (Jessica Moy and Mandy Edmondson). I believe our production of the Preliminary Task was a great success due to our combined teamwork and effort.

Preliminary Task - Final Edit

This is our group's final edit for our Preliminary task. I edited the film in my own free time due to camera and computer problems in past lessons while at CNS (mentioned in previous posts). If this didn't occur we would of done 2 different edits by 2 group member's out of the 4, then compared and picked the best. The film got happily approved by the group members that this would be our final edit. It took about 90mins of my time to upload onto YouTube this weekend on the 22nd/Oct/2011.

Credits and Cast members - (In order of appearance):

Mandy Edmondson: Girl 1 (on phone)
Jessica Moy: Girl 2
Austen Nuttall (Me): Boy using Computer
James Kent: Cameraman

Preliminary Task: Planning - Story Boards and Brief.

Preliminary Task - Planning

Brief/Idea:

Story Board:

Kill Bill Vol 1 Opening - Thriller Features

Kill Bill Vol 1 (2003)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller


Possible Spoilers Below - Take care!

The Bride wakes up after a long coma. The baby that she carried before entering the coma is gone. The only thing on her mind is to have revenge on the assassination team that betrayed her - a team she was once part of. - IMDb

Kill Bill Vol 1 was released as a "Feature Film but had many "B Movie" elements as Quentin Tarantino was greatly influenced by "B Movies". A "B Movie" is normally a low budget production which would normally been shown before the main "feature film" you would see in the cinema around in the 50's. These "B Movies" often had bad quality soundtracks, didn't feature any popular actors or actresses and had a very low budget to go by. "B Movies" are no longer shown before the feature films as we don't have "double bills" in cinemas these days. 

Kill Bill Vol 1- Opening Scene 

The original clip which I've used has unlucky been removed/blocked
due to copyright issues on YouTube. I have enabled another version below but
it does not contain the company titles or the song at the end.

Kill Bill Vol 1's opening scene started with a tribute to the "Noir" films. "Noir" means that the film was very dark, gloomy and often in black and white. After the opening scene we learn that 4 years in the film have past since, then the film turns into colour. This colour change represents the memory we saw at the beginning.

In the beginning of "Kill Bill Vol 1" the film starts off with an "Old Klingon Proverb" - a slight comical joke by Quentin Tarantino which holds an important meaning about "Kill Bill Vol 1".

"Revenge is a dish best served cold"

Quentin Tarantino started his film with this quote to establish the film's genre and purpose. He wants us to know that this film is going to be about revenge. The revenge in this film will be "served cold"  which suggests that in this film, cold blooded violence will be included .

Also in the opening scene of "Kill Bill Vol 1" we hear a woman breathing deeply while the title credits are rolling. The woman's breathing is a diegetic sound. This is when we hear a sound while there is no visible image of the woman breathing. The heavy breathing sets a sense of terror and creates an atmosphere which is very tense - We're literally shivering  in our seats to find out what happens next. 

After the production titles have finished, the woman who is the main character who we learn is called "The Bride" is shown on the floor, with blood stains all over her face. The we see a figure's feet walking towards her slowing. We start to wonder who is this figure? What are they doing? Bill is an enigma - something which we cant see, very mysterious. 

Then the figure is towering above the woman, an old looking hand (a mans) starts to wipe the blood of The Brides face with a handkerchief which has the name "Bill" imprinted on it. This suggests that Bill is very "full of himself". Bill is also talking to The Bride in a manor that is very sadic. This means that he enjoys cruelty and pain. The scene has many thriller elements. These are listed below:

• Innocent Victim
• Characters with dark pasts
• Twisted relationships
• Duplicitous individuals

The opening scene is very tense and chilling to watch, especially when we hear a gun shot from a gun right after The Bride tells Bill: "Bill, it's your baby....*BANG!*". This made everybody jump right up in their seats while watching it in our media studies lesson. It still makes me jump after watching it many times on DVD. This is very well timed by Quentin Tarantino and backs up he wanted the film to be about violence, terror and full of suspense which will make you cling for your life onto the chair your sitting on like a real thriller should do.

Even the music played after this scene suggests that the film is about:

• Revenge
• Death
• Innocent victims
• Twisted relationships
• Dark
• Gloomy
• Deception

The song featured is called "Bang Bang" by Nancy Sinatra.

How did TTSS use new technologies to strengthen the marketing campaign?

 

Thriller Research: Looking at Last Years "Opening to a Thriller Film"

For the "Thriller Opening" I am now in a group with the following people (due to group changes):

• James Kent

In total, it'll just be me and James - Us 2. However, I can see this as a good idea despite many of our groups in our Media Studies Class are in 3's and even one or two in 4's. This is because I've known James since the start of High School. We didn't talk much, but we knew each other and got along with one another. This will help when it comes to creating our film opening and editing as we are familiar with each other's strengths and weaknesses.

In today's lesson ( 12/Oct/2011) we looked at some "Thriller Openings" by last year's students. I thought that these where very good. They gave me an insight into what my group's "Thriller Opening" will look like too when we come to filming it.

After looking at some of the productions by last year's Students, I began to think about filming in colour or in black and white. This is because one of the productions which we watched was in black and white (there was also a colored version too, which I believe didn't have that "impact" which the black and white one did.) The whole idea of having it in black and white instead of colour was brilliant. I believe, in my opinion, it seemed to add more to the mise-en-scene. It made everything more dark and mysterious to view. Especially when it was filmed during the evening. 

Close example of what I mean by a
"Detective by a lamppost."

One shot stood out for me, and that was where this figure (a Man with a black suit, and with a rounded black hat) was standing on a slight tilt by a lamppost. This reminded me SO much of a detective waiting to swap information with an agent.

When it comes to filming my group's "Opening to a Thriller Film" I think it would be very wise to have a colored and a black and white version so I can compare them and see if it makes a difference to the opening or not. 

Preliminary Task: Editing and Capturing Our Film - Success!!!

Today (10Th Oct 2011) we tried to capture and edit our film again. This time, successful!

We started to edit our film once capturing was complete. We found this rather difficult because we haven't used the software before. But once we got started we picked up speed eventually. 


Capturing our film was finally finished at last, and we had nearly finished editing just before the lesson came to an end.


Today I had 2 hours free after our lesson for editing, so I decided to stay behind to finish editing and to add some titles to our Preliminary Task film, and before I knew it, editing was also finished

Now all we have to do is export the film and then upload it onto YouTube so that we can enable it onto my blog, and also my group member's blogs.

Preliminary Task: Editing and Capturing Our Film - A few Problems

For the past few lessons the whole Media Studies group have been trying to capture our film onto a computer so we can start editing. However, some problems arose with capturing the film onto a P.C. as this is due to the fact that the other group broke a few cameras. This made work difficult to complete as there was only about 2 or 3 working cameras left for the whole of our Media Studies Group.


On top of this, many of the batteries started to run low and then finally ran out of power. Now the whole class only had 1 camera to work with. I suggested to Miss/our Teacher that at Lunch times before the lesson started which this occurred that someone, or even herself should charge the camera's batteries so they are ready to use and wouldn't then course any inconvenience. I hope this will be considered for future lessons as I am a bit disappointed that myself, my group, and most of the class suffered with this problem for nearly 2 hours without any alliterative work to do until the last half an hour or so.


On the bright side, once capturing is complete (which shouldn't take that long once we can get everything working) we can start to edit. Hopefully this will be in Tomorrow's lesson. If not, it shouldn't take that long to do. Once these problems have been overcome we will be on our way to editing our film for the Preliminary Task.

Thrillers I've Watched

Below are a few media productions I've watched before and In my opinion are Thrillers or /and have elements which a Thriller genre has.

• Donnie Darko (film)
• The Others (film)
• Winter's Bone (film)
• The Sixth Sense (film)
• Phone Booth (film)
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy (film)
• The Butterfly Effect (film)
• Spooks (T.V. program)

Below are some links to trailers and also reasons why I believe these are Thriller films/T.V. shows.

Note: Possible Spoilers below

Donnie Darko (2001)


Director: Richard Kelly

"A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident." - IMDb

• Psychological theme
• Innocent victims
• Deadly situation
• Doomsday-related
• Dark/Gloomy

 Here's a link to a trailer:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wqVHjK2bQs




The Others (2001)


Director: Alejandro Amenábar

"A woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted." - IMDb

• Innocent victims
• Dark/Gloomy
• Death-related
• Twisted story line
• Drama
• Mystery

Here's a link to a trailer: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu494-Dr5po




Winter's Bone (2010)


Director: Debra Granik

"An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact." - IMDb

• Dark/Gloomy
• Innocent Victims 
• Mystery
• Drama
• Drug related

Here is a link to a trailer: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O8F8JtSVmI




The Sixth Sense (1999)


Director: M. Night Shyamalan

"A boy who communicates with spirits that don't know they're dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist." 
- IMDb

• Chilling
• Mystery
• Gloomy
• Death-related
• Innocent Victims

Here is a link to a trailer: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9AGf66tXM




Phone Booth (2002)


Director: Joel Schumacher

"Stuart Shepard finds himself trapped in a phone booth, pinned down by an extortionist's sniper rifle." - IMDb

• Innocent Victims
• Mystery
• Death-related
• Cops involved
• Romantic "triangles" leading to murder
• Jealousy

Here is a link to a trailer: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aeenJO64AQ




Tinker, Tailor, Solder Spy (2011)


Director: Tomas Alfredson

"In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons." - IMDb

• Jealousy
• Mystery
• Drama
• Gloomy/Dark
• Political conspiracy
• Double agents/Conspiracy
• Assassins
• Stalkers/Stalking

Here is a link to a trailer: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aco15ScXCwA




The Butterfly Effect (2004)


Director(s): Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber

A young man blocks out harmful memories of significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life. - IMDb

• Jealousy
• Mystery
• Drama
• Gloomy/Dark
• Romantic "triangles" leading to death
• Innocent Victims
• Drug use

Here is a link to a trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8_dgqfPXFg



Spooks (T.V program 2002 - 2011)


Creator: David Wolstencroft

"The missions of MI-5, the UK's domestic intelligence organization." - IMDb

• Drama
• Mystery
• Dark
• Double agents/Conspiracy
• Political conspiracy
• Innocent victims
• Twisted relationships
• Dark pasts
• Assassins
• Stalkers

Here is a link to series 10 (last series. It's also my favorite trailer of "Spooks Series 10" which shows many "Thriller-like elements"): 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Sr8-wy-38



Sources:

All quotes from IMDb (Internet Movie Database): http://www.imdb.com/
All trailer links from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/