I decided to separate each group like this so it made it
easier to see my ideas and share them. There are also words surrounding the
mood board. These refer to ideas we had about our film opening.
All of the photos are black and white. This is because our
preliminary task was edited to look black & white. We liked this effect so
we decided to carry it through to our main project.
There are some effects which we may use in our film opening;
these are the standard action effects which are used in action for example
explosions, blood & gore etc.
There are some vehicles we could use, we would add them in
when editing, or see if we can film in an area with vehicles, and these images
just show the conventional vehicles which are used action/thriller movies.
There are some locations I thought would be significant for
our film opening. Some of them we may not be able to use due to our location,
but we could use our town or some of the countryside nearby as some of the
locations.
There are different types of characters which will feature
in our film opening, types of characters such as hostages, family, hero, and
the image of Jason Statham shows that type of film and character that the main
hero of the film has.
There are just some props we are probably going to use, such
as cash, weapons, costumes, fabrics etc. Again, these props are stereotypical
for our chosen genre. These also signify what our film opening is going to be
about as well.
For research into film openings, I am going to look at two film openings in the same genre as mine, and see what I like, what is effective, and what we could use for our film opening. The two films I am going to be talking about are 'James Bond: Casino Royale' and 'Goodfellas'...
'James Bond - Casino Royale'...
I chose this film opening as it's very action/thriller. I like the black ad white contrast, and the shot's used. I like the fact that it has a small opening before the actual credits, I think it's very effective as it set's up the rest of the film. The opening credits are then quite long, this allows the audience to process what has happened in the opening scenes, and to prepare themselves for what is to come.
ANALYSIS OF THE OPENING:
The black and white colouring of the opening is similar to what we did for our preliminary filming task, it adds mystery to the scene, we can't see all of the detail, and we can just make out the faces, this is a good technique as it slowly introduces the film to the audience and the characters as well.
The pace is good, it's fast and yet easy to follow, this is good as the audience won't get lost within the storyline, and they won't get confused, pace is very important in action films, as it can't be too slow, and it can't be too fast, it has to be right, and this film opening has the perfect pace.
There were a lot of shots used, like for example wide shots, low angles, and close ups. These are used specifically to either introduce locations, key characters and to follow the action, such as the bathroom scene, and the scene where one of the key characters is walking towards his office. There were also quick cuts to match the pace of the action, and the music.
The music started off quiet and eerie, started to build up to signify that something is about to happen, then quietened down to allow the audience to hear the dialogue between the two key characters of the opening scene, then built up as the theme song began playing.
Overall I think that this is a good example to use as it shows all of the typical conventions of an action/thriller movie opening, such as the built music, fast pace, quick cuts, multiple close ups etc. There are many aspects of this opening that I think would look just as good in our film opening, such as the monochrome effect and the music.
'Goodfellas'...
I chose this film opening, as I thought the narration in the beginning was very effective and could be something that we can use in our project. Again this is a very action/thriller movie, and has a similar sort of feel to what our idea has, such as the gangsters being similar to the kidnapper/loan sharks in our movie idea.
ANALYSIS OF THE OPENING:
There's no background music until the credits start, this is probably to draw the audience's attention to the banging sounds coming from the car, to signify something is going to happen. It also allows the audience to be able to hear the dialogue.
There is narration near the end of the opening, this is a good technique as it introduces the key character to the audience without taking away from the action. It creates a sense of direct mode of address with the audience.
Again, as with 'Casino Royale', there are a lot of quick cuts, this is to create tension and to slightly match the pace of the opening.
Close ups are used, and wide shots, to introduce key characters, locations, and props, in this case the car.
Overall, this isn't as effective as the 'Casino Royale' opening, but the narration is an effective technique, and I think we could also use this in our film opening, I think it's a good technique to use, and I think the lack of music may also be a good technique to use as it draws the audience's attention to what is going on on-screen rather than what song is playing or what the music is like.
Our first job when it came to deciding on our pitch was to come up with a name for our film, we had many suggestions such as 'Ransom', 'Fisherman', 'Captive', 'Hostage'. We then came up with the name 'Loan shark' and we all agreed that it sounded better, and went well with our opening. It also tells the audience who the main characters are which is a key feature in most action/thriller movie titles.
We decided to go with the hostage/abduction theme for our opening. We all thought that showing the hostage scene before the actual film, and then cutting to the present, so making it seem that all that happened was a future event/dream. Our plot is that there is struggling man trying to make ends meet, running out of money, he decides to take a loan from loan sharks. They then come back asking for a repayment, taking his family, killing his wife and he has to fight to get them back. This is our main idea, this may change due to possible film issues like not having enough cast members, props etc, and limited locations.
For our pitch plan, we decided to agree on a plot, film name, and whether we would include some of the research - International Co-Production and/or Regional Funding. We decided to base our opening on two films - 'Abduction' and 'Taken'. We thought that these were good, role models for our particular genre. We agreed that we would include Regional Funding and International Co-Production for our film opening, we thought it was a good idea as we researched them, and it would make our film opening look more professional. This is our final pitch:
'A man facing challenges to get his family back from loan-sharks. Based around 'Abduction' & 'Taken', a typical Jason Statham film. Genre, action/thriller, male audience.'
We think that the pitch is simple yet descriptive, it includes the genre, target audience, film inspirations, dream actors, and brief description of plot. I am going to be talking about the main plot, film names, International Co-Production & Regional Funding and genre & target audience all in separate posts...
Overall, the Preliminary task was quite simple. I did find some areas difficult, like finding another suitable setting, and working around those who weren't in when we had to re-film. I think what could have made it easier would be having reliable technology, as that was one of the reasons why we had to re-film. My role was quite simple fulfil, I was filming and editing along with the other group members. I have realised that filming is a lot trickier than it looks, and have learnt how hard it is to keep the camera movements smooth without using a dolly or crane. I think I put in an equal amount of effort within my roles & I have realised that there are some skills I need to improve for the actual filming project. The editing process was easy, I have had lot's of experience editing videos' so I think that is one area which I am fairly strong at, and I did put equal effort into that role as well, along with my group. Overall, I think that I have learnt so many things about filming and editing, and there are a few areas I need to improve in order to make our main film successful.
We were given the task of creating an original Production Company name and logo for our main film. We decided to go with a British theme as most production companies are based in America. Firstly we did some online research on the type Genre that the main Production Company's produce to give us an idea of what name would suit our chosen Genre, and it helped us to decide on the Genre of the film, the three Production Company's that we looked at were - Universal Studios, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures. Each production company had a vast range of Genre. We came up with several names, some of which sounded similar to companies such as the BAFTA's.
These are the ideas we came up with, we did a mind map of names and logo designs, some of the names we came up with were; 'The British Film Academy' which sounded similar the the BAFTA's, 'Crown Productions' because we thought that Crowns are a British thing, 'Thames Productions' but I think that already exists so we didn't go with that idea. We eventually came up with the name ' Three Lions Productions' as we thought that lions are a British symbol, they are on the British emblem. There is also a photo of the images I found of lions on the internet. I found these so we had an idea of what to base the image on, basically it was part of our research into production company logos. Once we came up with the name, we had to come up with a logo, we decided to have three lions on the logo, and decided to have two side on lions with a face on lion in the middle, we chose an ye olde English font to emphasise the British theme, and we chose to have a silvery coloured background with the lions silhouetted...
This is the final design for our Production Company. We think the colours go really well, and that the font really adds that element of British - ism within it. We like it a lot and we think it's really original.
When we were first given the task to shoot a short film, all three of us had our own ideas on the main plot and name of the film. My idea was an Argument, two people having an argument within school, or at work, Graham's idea was to do an interview, it was a good idea as it did relate to our lives, as we've all had interviews with people in the past, and Marnie's idea was to do something like a Deal, where there's a drug deal or something similar. We all agreed with Marnie's idea as we thought it sounded interesting and was an easy genre to use.
We did have to change a few shots, as when we did it again, we didn't have all of the props, and some of the group weren't in and we had to follow the script. We changed the match on action, as we thought it was a more effective shot than it was before. This was the original Shot Script, which we did film first, before we had to redo the whole thing!
Our preliminary task is to show off our filming, editing and acting skills and is a good practice run before we start our main task. We were asked to shoot three main shots these are; Match on Action, Shot/Reverse Shot, and The 180 Degree Rule.
Match on Action - A cut between two shots of the same action from different positions, giving an impression of seamless simultaneity. Our example is when Graham is walking through the door from one angle, it cuts to show him walking through the door on the other side of it.
Shot/Reverse Shot - Two successive shots from an equal and opposite angles, typically of two characters during a conversation. Our example in our video is the two over the shoulder shots of Graham and Megan when they were talking to each other.
The 180 Degree Rule - This states that the camera can be in any position as long as it remains on one side of the action. If not it becomes a reverse shot. Our example is when I panned at the end of the video I kept to one side of the action.
It took us a while to eventually get to the editing stage and actually complete the film, this was due to issues with the given technology, now that has been resolved, we managed to get something filmed and edited. When we were given the chance to re-film our Prelim task, not all of the group members were in that day, but luckily, a member of the other group helped and took their place. I filmed, and the other two group members were in the film acting. We had to rethink about our choice of location, and decided on using our teachers' classroom. Below is a step by step explanation of each clip we filmed:
Stage 1:
This clip was one of the easiest clips to film, it just involved a close up of Graham's shoes, showing him doing the laces up. The only problem was the background noise, which was a problem with most, if not all of the clips, but we managed to edit out the sound, and replaced it with dramatic music. Stage 2:
In the first clip, I actually zoomed in too much, and it didn't look right, it looked too jumpy. So we did the shot again, this time I made sure that the camera was at the correct zoom so that all I had to do was to move the camera slowly upwards. We made the first few clips black and white as we thought it made the video seem a little bit more professional. Stage 3:
These clips show Graham sorting out his hat, the last one had to be cut out as we thought there was no point in having it in, we used the other two as we thought they were well done, and the clips matched the music, and was similar to the shots we previously filmed before they went missing. Stage 4:
These clips show Graham walking up a stair case as part of our film. These shots were easy to film, we got the right angle, right distance from camera and it looks quite clean. They also transition into each other quite nicely, there is no jump, we did have to cut out the background noise here as there were lots of kids talking and teachers walking down the corridor, so we replaced it with the background music we found. Stage 5:
These clips show Graham walking up to the door, and me zooming into the door handle. We had to cut down the length of the second clip as I zoomed in too late, and it was just a couple seconds zoomed in on a open door, which seemed useless to the actual film. The first clip was okay, it didn't need to be edited as much as the second one, it was a simple over the shoulder shot, easy to film. Stage 6:
These clips show Graham entering one room, then entering another. We liked the cut from him opening the second door, to him entering the second room, as it looked quite professional and didn't need a transition. We also added a sound effect of Big Ben's chime, we lowered volume so it made it sound like it was coming from outside. This was our Match on action shot, we had to change it as we couldn't remember which shot was our match on action, so we went with this. Stage 7:
We made a mistake when it came to this shot, the first pan we did, we forgot that there was dialogue in this scene, and my camera skills weren't exactly good at this part of the film, so we re filmed the shot, with a smoother pan, and dialogue, once we remembered what he had to say. We also added a colour transition here, so it looked like we were looking through his eyes, his P.O.V. Stage 8:
These clips show Graham walking up to the chair and sitting down. We had three different shots of him sitting down, so we decided to get rid of two of them as we didn't to show him sitting down three times. We also got rid of some of the sounds, as the clanking of the chair was very loud, so we muted half of it. Stage 9:
These clips include the rest of the dialogue, and we showed this through an over the shoulder shot. We cut the second clip as we didn't think it fitted in well with the rest of the film. We did see if we could cut it down, but when we played it back, it didn't seem right. We decided to stick with the over the shoulder shot, rather than an over the shoulder shot and a close up. Stage 10:
These clips show Megan and Graham passing papers to each other, the first shot wasn't great as the angle didn't allow me to be able to see the folder being passed, so I had to move slightly to the right so that the 'money' and the folder can be easily seen being passed to one another. There is another shot showing them looking at what they were given, we thought this was fitting and when we added the music, when we were editing, we could see how it matched the actual music. Stage 11:
These are the final clips of the film, the first shot we took of them shaking hands wasn't great, as I was too zoomed in and it was very shaky and very jumpy. So we redid the shot and this time I wasn't too zoomed in, and gradually zoomed in to the shaking hands. We made this clip black and white to match the beginning of the film, and we cut most of the ending of the clip so that it ended with the hand shaking. We used three different types of transitions, a Cross Blur, Cross Fade, and a Colour Fade. We didn't want too many transitions as we didn't want to confuse the audience/viewers, we wanted it to be consistent and clean. We also added opening credits, naming the Director, Actors, and the Cameraman. We also credited the guy who made the music from YouTube. It was fun to make, when the technology eventually worked, and it gave me some good practice for when we make our actual film.
