Sunday, 15 March 2009

Preliminary exercise evaluation

In are preliminary exercise I worked with Hannah, we both done half of each job, if one of us was recording the other was holding the microphone and vice versa.

Are finished piece was average although I would say there were still a few more things we need to improve on.

We had some problems on it such as are fist shot was too long and by the time Marc had reached the door the audience would of got bored of it, another problem was that the pan of Marcs walking toward the table was too long and did not flow smoothly as a part of the pan was to quick and another was too slow.

Also we did not manage to achieve match on action as on one shot Chris hands were clenched and on the other they were flat on the table.
One of our biggest problems was handles we did not have enough of them as you can notice in the last few shots as they are cut very quickly and just about manage to get the dialogue in. furthermore our position of shots could have also been improved by lowering the camera so more head room was let in which would of made the shot look better.

It would have been helpful if we had taken some extra shots so we could of cut to them when some of the scenes were too long.

However on the positive side we did not break the 180 degree line rule and we pretty much always stuck to the rule of thirds.

Me and Hannah have discovered are mistakes and we shall try our best to make sure the same mistakes do not happen in future projects.

Saturday, 14 March 2009

Evaluation for the exchange

My group consisted of 4 people me, Chris Rathbone, Nicola Wright and Nick Rayner

My responsibilities in the project was to do part directing and part producing and part cameraman I contributed a lot in telling the actors were to stand and how to do things, I also helped the cameraman with were to place the camera and what shots to use, for example whether to use a pan or just shoot it as a long shot.
I learnt a lot about camera movements and how to handle a camera and film good shots.

Are finished project was really good the music went really well with the footage and the shots were really effective, the only bad thing was on and of our shots we dint film enough so had problems with the handles however we cut a bit out and it ended up looking ok but not perfect. Also I think we should of filmed some more shots because when we had finished we just stopped where we could of filmed some more which would of helped a lot when we were editing are footage. I dint really do much editing just gave my view on what bits to use so next time I would like to do a bit more editing so I would learn new skills and have a better understanding of how to use he programme.

The costumes worn by the characters gave the audience some kind of idea of what type of people they were for example Nicola was wearing stilettos she is also seen lighting a cigarette these are both done by the femme fetale role in film noirs. Furthermore Nick was wearing a shirt and tie but the tie was worn loosely and he also held a blazer over his shoulder which made him look like a type of working class man who was also under a lot of stress as he looked scruffy by the way his clothes were worn. The props used were a briefcase an envelope a cigarette and a lighter. The briefcase made the audience wonder why a female was carrying it and what was inside it, this had the same effect on the audience as the envelope they wanted to know what init was and the shot of Nick looking left and right before passing the letter over made things seem even more suspicious.
I thought are choice of location was very good because it was perfect for are exchange it was an underground car park which is a suspicious place to see two people meet and it was rather dark, however this did not affect are lighting, besides we changed are piece from colour to black and white when editing it because we thought this would make it look more like a film noir and would go well with the piece.

The main part of are exchange I liked was the last shot which I recorded it’s, a shot which looks through a caged fence and is handheld to make it look more realistic, it gives the idea that the 2 characters were being watched by someone which makes the audience want to carry on watching it. It’s kind of like a twist at the end because it is not expected.

When we watched it in class the majority of the class seemed to really like it, they didn’t really have any bad comments on it accept the part were she’s lighting the cigarette because that was the part were we didn’t film enough on and it looked a little bit odd, and that some of are cuts were a few shots outs, however this is not a major issue but was just a point to consider for are final project, other than that they thought it was a good piece of work.

In conclusion I was very happy with me n my groups overall effort and I think that are finished project was really good and much improved than are preliminary exercises in every way such as camera shots, editing and even sound.

Monday, 2 March 2009

Treatment for editing and SFX


The titles will be appearing on and off at the start of the film for example it will show the first title then show a couple of seconds of the opening and then cut back to another title, this is so the audience wont get bored from just seeing the titles at the start straight away so it will be divided up, or the some of the titles might appear on the screen as well as the footage depending on how long the opening is going to be.

In our opening there are going to be a couple of scenes which involve voiceovers so there fore were going to have to film the footage and then record the sound and when editing we shall put the dialogue over the footage we have to make sure that the dialogue is not too long and matches the length of the scene.

Are film opening also includes some flashbacks therefore we are going to have to decide on what effects to use when cutting to a flashback, the programme already has a range of different effects, one of the ones I liked was the ghost effect where it makes the characters look ghostly as they move I think it will be a good effect to use but I am not particularly sure if it is the right one for are footage. Furthermore we may end up changing he flash backs to black and white to help the audience know that it is a flashback or we could end up using black and white for some of the scenes if the lighting is not very good.

Also at the start of are opening when the male character is just regaining consciousness and starts to look around the room we are going to find an effect that will make him look kind of disorientated, and the shot be a bit blurry to show the audience that’s how he is seeing things at that moment.



I have also found and selected a couple of different types of music which I think will fit in well with our opening, but me and my group are still to decide on which one we are going to use.
It’s going to start of with a quiet, slow piece of music at the start and then gradually increase in speed and sound as the opening progresses.


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbh3ZYuTBDY&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSYgzyWEMjw

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bQe4lb9aQ78