FIlming Saturday 14th December 2010

During the editing stage of the footage that we filmed on 11th December 2010, some of the individual character shots do not seem as clear and as crisp as we would like.

We plan to re-shoot these today after school.
The shots include two individuals walking on the pavement and talking to his friends.

Although these shots are less than one second each, i feel that this is very important as it establishes the relationship between the audience and the character.

Eddies and Maurice's shots are focused in the wrong area. We can correct this by using a focus pull so the characters face is clear while the background seems blurry.

Filming

On Saturday 11th December, Group 2 completed just under four hours of filming.
During this time, the weather was very cold, which worked well for us, as people would be less inclined to go out, so there would be less interference with our filming.

One of the main problems of shooting handheld was the shakiness, however, after many takes, i managed to find a solution. If i locked my arm into my chest, and tried to walk as smooth as possible this would produce a clean shake free shot. If there is a good take, but you can still detect some movement, we can edit this out and make it smoother by using a program called 'Adobe After Effects.'

During this time, we filmed the rest of the opening sequence when the four friends are walking down the street. During these shots we experimented with focus pulls, shooting from different angles and shooting behind railings to give a different effect.

We filmed on Mount Nod Road which is located beside Dunraven School.
This was an ideal shooting location, as it has 'no entry' from one direction, which decreases the flow of traffic. This was perfect for us, as there would be minimum interference with our filming.

These images show some screen shots from Saturdays filming.

Weather Conditions.

Due to the current weather conditions in South London, we have had to edit our shooting schedule. This has meant we are now approximately one week behind due to a large amount of snow and ice.

Although it would have been interesting to film in the snow, we have completed some filming in dry weather conditions.  Therefore we felt as the snow would affect the continuity  it was agreed as a group that we would halt filming until weather conditions improved.

My Film Poster Mock.

I have decided to draw a mock drawing for a film poster for our film, Exodus. 

Film Poster

For this task, i was told to reasearch a current poster for a film that has been made and annotate the important aspects and areas that relate to your genre.

The general codes and conventions of film posters are

To have a focal picture that will entice given demographic of target audience.

To display a large title that is easily read.

Coming soon or release date displayed.

May use famous actors to promote the film.

Suggestion of the film genre.

A website is increasingly displayed on film posters

A tagline is usually evident on the poster.

Directors and Production Company displayed.

Age certification usually displayed.

 



Animatic.

On final completion of the Storyboard, shot list and script, we made an 'Animatic.'

An animatic, is a video, which shows all your shots put together, like a mini film, with a voice over placed upon it.

This means we can view what our film will be like.

I photographed all the photos, and edited them in Final Cut Express, a program used on a Mac.

Adeel & I recorded the voice overs.

Animatic

Once Ryan & Adeel had completed the storyboarding, i took the photos of all the pictures, and put them into an Animatic.

Adeel & I recorded the voice over, and i was responsible for editing, and synchronising the whole Animatic. 

The image shows a screen shot using Final Cut Express, during the process of editing. 

Locations

In our film, there is a scene that shows Eddy, Parham and Alex walking down the road. On the other side of the road they meet Tyreece. This image below shows the type of location where we would be inclined to film. A quite residential road, with not too much traffic, so it would't interfere with our filming. 

We also need to film in a cafe. This is a picture of a Costa Coffee. Although we doubt we will be able to film in this exact location. This is the type of location of where we would like to film.

This video shows an idea that i had to portray isolation.

I saw a video in which a boy had straped a tripod with a camera placed upon it  to his chest. it gives the effect shown in the video above.

I thought this would be a very effective way of showing the audience how nervous and isolated the actor could be. 

In order to see if this works we needed to take a practice shot, this shows he results. 

Questionaire

In order to find out what people thought about certain types of films, i created this questionaire.
We plan to ask a minimum of twenty people, as we think there will be sufficient people, so we can compare results. Any less than twenty particpants may not give us an accurate result.

We plan to upload the results of the questionaire in due course.

Drama Codes & Conventions.

Drama films generally portray the realities, whether harsh or fair realities of everyday life. Dramas often contain social, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, poverty, crime and racial issues. It is not unusual for films in this genre to contain graphic, violent and sometimes gorey scenes.
Dramas generally conform to certain stereotypes, for example their use of Lighting, Mise en scene, character outfits, and props. These ideas generally flow from one drama film to the other, as it is these elements which draw in such wide audiences.

What is a Drama.

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena.

This film genre can be contrasted with an action film, which relies on fast-paced action and physical conflict, but superficial character development. All film genres can include dramatic elements, but typically, films considered drama films focus mainly on the drama of the main issue.

Some well-known drama films include Citizen Kane, The Godfather,  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Forrest Gump and The Shawshank Redemption.

Drama films have been nominated frequently for the Academy Award - more than any other film genre.

The ShawShank Redemption DVD Cover.

The ShawShank Redemption has to be one of my favourite films of all time. After long discussions with my group, we all decided that we wanted to create a short film about drama. I have previously created the opening of a short film, however, this was a social realism opening.


Although I thoroughly enjoyed making a social realism film opening, I have always been a fan of Drama’s and for that reason I would love to create a short film with the Genre of Drama.

The Black Hole.

The opening scene of this short film begins with an office worker doing what appears to be a run of the mill office job. One can identify with him. Evidently he realises he is in a job that is neither rewarding financially nor motivationally. He is stood over a photocopier, doing what happens in every office environment in the world. His demeanour tells you it is one of the least pleasurable duties he performs on a daily basis. To emphasise the boredom endured the lead character’s disenchantment is summed up by what can only be described as an exaggerated sigh of exasperation. Even what should be a simple technique of putting the photocopier in motion is made worse by an apparent malfunction. A quick kick remedies this.

The actor is confronted by an image of a black circle imprinted centrally on A3 paper which bears no resemblance to the copy image expected.

Whilst appearing perplexed he thinks nothing of what has just occurred. It is only when he places his drinks cup by chance on the black circle and finds to his astonishment, that the cup is swallowed within what appears to be a black hole. Such is his confusion he is convinced the cup has gone through the worktop of the photocopier on which the paper has been placed. He bends down and finds nothing. He gingerly lowers his hand into the black circle and retrieves the cup and is confronted with his own ‘eureka’ moment. He realises the paper with the black circle on it enables him to penetrate anything it is placed upon, over or against. At this point his mind is racing and dissecting the potential of his discovery. Unfortunately as we shall see his actions are geared not for the good but with the intention of ‘payback time’ against the employers that he deems have been less than fair with him.

His first venture is like that of a small time crook. He penetrates a vending machine and nets the grand prize of a chocolate bar. Finding this enterprise rewarding, he then decides to go for the equivalent of the Great Train Robbery. Spying a safe in corner of the room, he places his paper with the black circle in front of the door. As with the vending machine his hand enters the safe and reappears with a clutch-full of cash. Not satisfied with this his sudden windfall, he decides it’s all or nothing, he will clean out the safe. Having to reach further into the safe to access more distant corners he manoeuvres his body inch by inch further into the safe. The viewer can see immediately what will befall the character who now resembles a cat burglar with only his feet visible from the outside of the safe. Then it happens; his whole body is engulfed by the safe, the paper that had been his entrance and in his mind his exit, slowly inches its way down the facade of the safe. What a pity he failed to read the fable of King Midas.

I found this short film to be thought provoking and without moralising too much draws the viewer’s attention to folly of greed. 

 Video : The Black Hole

What is a short film??

A short film is a piece of video that is generally between three to forty five minutes. In north America, a short film is considered to be between 20 and 40 minutes, however, in Europe a short film generally lasts between one and fifteen minutes. Some people specialise is just making short films, however, the majority of short film makers are budding film makers or even the general public. Most short films that are made are broadcasted on the World Wide Web, on website such as Vimeo, or the world famous YouTube.

Some of the best short films are broadcast on televisions. This tends not to happen in the UK; however this is a common site in Canada as a ‘time filler.’
Sometimes a trailer for a full length feature film is often referred to as a ‘short.’