schedule

finish all pre production (scripting, storyboards and finding locations) by half term

cast during half term

shoot during second half of the term

christmas term is left for any remaining shots if needed and planning days for post production

finish post production by half term

prepare radio advertisement and poster during christmas break

prepare presentation as soon as post production is finished

filming area

here are some photographs of the estate where i chose to film

analysis

here are some analysis of films i watched in preparation for the making of my opening two minutes. i chose these films as they were of the same general plot or at least the same genre as mine.

Kung Fu Panda

this film fitted well into the same catagory as mine. the opening was a direct inspiration for my end product.

it opens with the dreamworks logo
the film is done with digital animation. it begins with a dream sequence and to show that it is a dream it is done in a different style of animation.

example of shots: begins with a tilt shot and then cuts to a close up. this is followed by a long shot from behind the charecter which shows the charecters location. this could be called the establishuing shot. then a paning shot is used over a crowd. a quick zoom is then used which gives sets the audioence up to expect something fast paced.

misen sen: the clothing and buildings help establish the location and time period. they were reminiscent of ancient china and so you saw robes and straw hats as well as the buildings made of bamboo. the sound is old chinese music.

lighting: the entire thing was anmated with darker colours to better show along with the animation the difference between the dream and reality.

special effects: no real special effects used as it was animation so all effecs were done in the same way as the rest of the film.

Austin powers 3

example of shots:it uses jump cuts. tracking shots and a variety of others.

misen sen:the music is fast and reminisent of other action films. the film is a sequel so the costume's while not realy being anything the person can understand normally create perfect misen sen when seen as it shows the viewer in a way they can understand just who they are seeing.

lighting:the lighting is used to show its day but does not feature heavily as something that makes any real effect.

special effects: there are many special effects used. greenscreen was used for much of it and the helicopter was likely a model. the explosian was done using a mix of CGI and pyrotechnics.

Kung Pow

example of shots:

misen sen:

lighting:

special effects:doll used for baby rollung down cliff. digital animation during fight scene.

script and storyboard

here are some extracts of the script and story board i made for the filming

1.EXT.STREET.DAY


from a distance a figure appears as it gets closer we see
that it is a young woman claire. she is dressed in a long
overcoat and is running fast. she has piercings in her nose
and bleach blond hair. soon after another figure appears
from round the corner. chasing ensues. sharp turns are take
and eventualy Claire runs offscreen. crashing noise is
heard implying that she ran into something.


CLAIRE
what the heck!





2. INT. APARTMENT. DAY


Claire sleeping on sofa. alarm wakes her. she gets off the
sofa removing the junk food wrappers. heads to door and
opens it.


EXT. STREET. DAY.


Claire walks out door. is confronted by large grey dog.
locks door before noticing. back to back shot of them and
dog barks. Claire runs into the distance with dog chasing
her.


THE NERD WHO LOVED ME

script

here is an extract of the script for our film

oops

sorry about the 2 second clip. here is the real first draft.

Music

we chose the song cool for katz as it had an appropriately fast pace but also was deep enough to not seem peppy and childlike. we chose to only include one song in the final draft rather than two in the first draft as while where we were putting them was appropriate,but, most films only contain the very start with a song or the second scene with a song.

first draft

this is our first draft of the film. it taught us a lot about how to make a film and showed us our errors in film making which in turn helped us make the final piece better.

Austin powers

this film was very helpful as it was a parody of a spy film, which in essence captures the same thing as an action comedy. it was also very helpful as the opening sequence was a film within a film which was very similar to a dream sequence.

Kung Fu panda

we used this films opening as inspiration for our plot and especially the dream sequence

first two minutes of train spotting

we used this opening as inspiration for the chase scene in our film

train spotting intro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPW0agrlq5g

Titles

editing in titles is probably the most difficult process in editing. we managed to do some interesting things. first of all we managed to create freeze frames of the actors during mid jump and we placed the titles under there feet. this looks impressive while not itself being an overly difficult thing to do. also it is reminiscent of many chase scenes where a pause is used to introduce a character. this is particularly often used by British film makers. for the actual title itself "the nerd who loved me" it was slightly more difficult. first of all we wanted to do something original. we discovered in our first draft that it was possible to make the words move across the screen and leave an imprint. this looks very flashy and unusual. it was however difficult as two different titles needed to be made and had to overlap on each other. also they needed to be perfectly level with each other. there were some problems with the titles in that sometimes they included a fade in fade out animation without us instructing it but this was all fixed.

Who is this marketed towards

this particular genre has a very wide range of audiences. it is easily marketable towards anyone from the age of 8 to 50 and thanks to our challenging of standard conventions we also are able to market it towards feminists through use of an actress rather than a actor to play the lead role. it encompasses two different genres and so can be marketed towards people who enjoy either genre on its own. the fact that it is aimed at both genders and uses two genres (comedy and action individually already having one of the largest audiences in the world).

Health and safety

this was not a huge issue in our final production as the only real thing to be noted was that we made sure to keep the food used for filming in safe conditions where it would not go bad. in our first draft we made multiple safety errors. first of all we filmed on a road were cars were going by. we took some precautions by having someone look out for cars but ultimately it was just a bad idea. secondly we had one actor tackle the other to the ground. we did this without a safety mat or any kind of padding to protect them. these are all things we fixed in the final draft. also the dog was well trained and despite its size presented no threat to actors or crew.

Location

Location location location. its a huge issue in film making. especially in a film such as ours which required good lighting and so needed to be shot around mid day and also required relatively empty locations. this being difficult in one of the most crowded cities in the world. a huge mistake we made in our first draft was that we chose a location that was close rather than one that was actually good. during filming we had to constantly cut due to passers by and drivers were a big hazard throughout filming. also it did not give us great opportunity to work with as it was simple roads.

we eventually found a relatively empty place. we found a series of council flats with extremely interesting architecture. filled with twists and turns perfect for a chase scene and also the paths were wide enough for the crew to manege all the equipment easily. also it was all made of grey concrete which simultaneously added to the atmosphere of the shot but did not attract any attention away from the cast.

first draft

we did a first draft of the film for multiple reasons. first of all we were eager to do more filming than the simple preliminary task we made which took all of five minutes to create. even more importantly it gave us the opportunity to observe the rookie mistake we would inevitably make. this was extremely helpful. we noticed that we made mistakes with almost everything. for instance we did not use proper costuming and it was difficult for an audience to assume why the actor was belong chased. we fixed this through using proper costuming an showing the audience that he is a thug. the camera is shaky throughout the entire production. the lighting gets quickly and progressively darker and darker. we only used one angle throughout the entire chase scene from different distances which made it look dull. just about the only thing we did not break was the 180 degree rule.

all this being said it also taught us a lot about editing techniques and how to modify sound. also we learnt how not to make a film. this overall made it a very positive experience and a very helpful one as well.

Mis en sen

we made sure to achieve this as best we could. all scenes were carefully shot with this rule in mind. likewise with all props. we made sure that most all details were covered to help better convey what we wanted to the audience. for instance we got junk food and spread it around the seemingly sleeping lead actress. this make the audience view her as someone who is lazy and unhealthy.

dubbing

during the film we needed to dub in words for a brief moment. this is because we were using silent footage when both people's faces were too dark to see. therefore the dubbbing is seemless. we used an echo effect to emphasise the fact that the person (this is a first person shot) is hurt and is dazed. we did this by simply filming two people saying the lines then uploading it onto the computer. we then deleted the visual elements of the shot and simply put the sound in place of the sound (or rather lack of it) which was under the footage in editing. this was fun to do as it allowed us to do something that was simoultaniosly easy and unusual.

difficulty in filming

there were many problems faced in filming and these were de to many different things

1. conditions. there were many days when we were unable to film due to poor weather conditions. also the amount of time with the same amount of light in a day is relativley short and if using natural lighting in a movie you must make sure that you keep trak of it. this was a big problem in the first draft of our film when we filmed in the afternoon and it got progresivley darker.

2. equipment. there were many problems with the equipment. this was the most problematic subject of the entire production. this was not explicitaly something wrong with the equipment themsleves but rather there were times that we were unable to use it due to our own lack of knowlegde though these particular problems only daunted us towards the beggining of the project. lac of a dolly made the chase scene difficult to achieve and camera's themselves must be kept in good conditions and handled carefully.

3. crew and cast. it is difficult to schedule people at the best of times and when they already have schedules for school (all of which ar different timetables) it becomes extremely unweildy. furthermore there are certain natural human reactions that made filming somewhat diffucult. in a shot where our lead actress runs down some stairs she naturaly reaches for the banister which takes away from the extreme and rushed look we were trying to achieve, though this was remedied by the "try and try again" method.

4. editing. the fact that we need to transfer the film from one computer to another as one solid clip rather than as numerous small clips that form the movie makes it not so much difficult as it is leignthy to edit the film should we realise during sound editing that there is a poblem we must go back to the original computer to edit it.

5. filming. the problems with filming were realy a compilation of weater conditions and equipment problems. if one piece of equipment is missing or not working properly it is very hazardous to the film. on one occasion we were unable to secure a tripod and it was clear when uploading the footage just how shaky the camera was.

6. planning. i have already mentioned the problems of planing with the crew and difficultys with the weather and light but also there were problems with the amount of time allowed access to the schools camera and tripod as well as he computers we required for editing. also storyboards with lackluster imagination were sometimes hacked apart during filming. this it must be admitted actualy lead us to have a better film but that was blind luck more so than anythign else.

inspiration

there were several films we took inspiraion from for our oppening sequence. two of these were kung fu panda and train spotting. kung fu panda for its serious opening which is soon twisted into something unexpected (this being the essence of good comedy) and train spotting for its incredible chase scene in the opening.both of these i am going to post the openings of as soon as possible.

Props

there were many props used. computer,dorito's keys ect were all vital to making the scnes appear realistic. for instance when the actress appears to wake up she is on an old sofa. furthermore we placed a computer directly by her side to make her appear as though she may well have been using it till she fell asleep. furthermore we made sure to get a bag of junk food and spread it around her so she appeared to have fallen asleep gorging herself on cheap snacks. this all added to the sense of patheticness which helped to make it clash and contrast with the dram sequence and better define them as two different realitys as well as setting up the basis of the charecter nicely.

Costume

the costume used by the actor and actress played a big part in the way we presented these charecters and more importantly made the audience view them in a certain way. in the oppening scene the hero (or heroine as it were) wears tight, sleeck black clothing. this makes the audience percive her as being someone who is in control and better ties with her chasing the villian who is dressed in normal dirty and dull clothes. he wears a hoodie and baggy pants. this nicely achieves a cross between someone who appears to possibly be a criminal (which is backed up by him being chased) and someone who looks distincly un-amazing. careful consideration was used when choosing the costume for the out of dream sequence. dirty worn and baggy sweat pants were chosen along with a loose fitting and cheap looking T shirt. this was used to contrast from the sleeck cool look in the dream sequence to the charecters pathtic reality. this achieved a clear break between the two realitys without it needing to be explicitaly stated. i do regret not making the actress remove her piercings for the post dream sequence as it did not fit in very well with the way we were attempting to portray the charecter, though i do belive that save the close up on her eyes they are barely visible and for the most part ignorable.

our oppening two minutes were inspired by the oppenings of films like johny english and austin powers 3. the scene will open with a dream (though this is not known to the audience) in which the main charecter chases down and subdues someone implied to be a villian. she then awakes to find it all a dream. this is shwon through a few means. first of all the change in film quality. secondly the music played over the chase scene ends abruptly with the ringing of her alarm. thirdly the change in the charecters mannerisms within the film.

changes in camera and why

i have made the decision to use two different cameras to shoot different parts of the film. this is because their is a slight difference in the way the two camera's shoot the film so the film itself will have a sligthly different look. i felt this to be appropriate as one camera is used for a dream sequence and the other is used for scenes shot in reality. this helps contrast the two kinds of scenes.

Camera shots and their uses

Establishing Shot – A shot (usually wide of long) often used at the start of a programme or a film, a new section of a programme, or at the start of a new scene to establish the relationship between the set/location and the characters and the show the whole view.

Master Shot – A shot a director will cut from and return to. For example, this might be a two-shot of two characters from which they will return. This establishes clear space and time relationships.

Close Up Shot – Includes extreme, big and medium close ups, are used to draw the viewer closer and to involve them in what is happening; they are also used to observe reactions and emotions, such as happiness. These shots are often used to privilege the protagonist over other characters and position the audience to identify with him or her.

Long Shot – This is often used for an establishing shot of a set or location.

Wide Shot – This can be used as an establishing shot of a set or location or to show a large crowd of people. It can also emphasize the isolation of a single figure.
Point Of View – Generally used either directly before of after shot of the protagonist looking at an object or a character who features in the point of view shot.

we did our filming today. there was some minor unforseen difficulties in obtaining the camera due to schedule conflicts but in the end we were able to do our filming. we aquisintioned the help of two fellow students to star in the filming before we began any actual filming. as a group we decided that i would take the role of director, josh the cameraman and imogen was in charge of sound. some problems were presented in filming through unpredictable things like people walking on the street and cars drivin past however we were able to film without any such problems in the final draft of the film for a few reasons.
1. i insisted on shooting all scenes at least 3 times to make sure we had a good variety of shots.
2. simple patience. we waited for the best moment to record the scene.
3. we had another freind planted down the road to signal us as to when the raod was clear to avoid having a car drive in our shot half way through filming.

MIGRAIN

migrain stands for
Media language
Institutuions
Genre
Representation
Audience
Ideologies
Narrative

all these things must be taken into account when doing anything media related which is everything in the world that has ever been produced be in commercialy or otherwise.

Media language is basicaly to describe or note everything needed to produce the desired product or piece of entertainment including things like title's or project names, key images or concepts, descriptions of the product ect.

Institutions are the form of media that the desired piece is made for. for instance non verbal print would well describe a book or magazine and moving image with audio could easily mean a film, television program or commercial.

Genre is simply the kind of product being made. this fits well into more specific sections of media, for instance the genre of the film is a horror or this magazine fits into the goth genre. these themselves will often lead to many sub genres (adventure comedy and horror thriller are good examples).

Representation is how, what, when, where, and why it is pesented to the target audience. it dictates the best way to do everything in the project from how to shoot a film to how to advertise it. a good example of this is a film like 28 days later. the film was shot in the standard way that most action horrors are. the way it was advertised was clever however. the makers realised that a good way of promoting the film was to work with the genre. horror movies often play on the fear or reality or rather the idea that the audience finds scariest what they feel they can relate to or a situation they can image themsleves in. the creators advertised the film partly by spraying a bio hazard symbol, (this being key to the zombie driven plot which does not always find huge success in box the office) and putting the title of the film as well as the release date in the centre. this was unique enough to draw people and and simoultaniosly make the plot seem more real.

Audience is probably the simplest of these terms. it is simply things like age groups, genders, genres of interest ect. these are groups of people which products are aimed at. for instance the audience of a magazine could be girls between the ages of 8 and 16 or people who enjoy rock music.

Ideologies are the ideas that a piece of media may pressent or the feelings it is trying to give the audience.

Narrative is given to a book or film that contains a story. it for the most part is simply a beggining, middle, end kind of thing but there are variatons to it. basicaly it is how the story progresses and forms over time.

over the comming 3 weeks i have made my schedule
week one create story board and organise all appropriate props and cast for the creation of the final task.
week two shoot the film and make sure all scenes needed are done and avoid any and all possible contuinuity errors
week 3 edit film and hand in for a sweet sweet A grade

editing the visual parts of the film was chalenging. it was difficult to make sure that all the scenes perfectly linked to eachother in one seamless film. even the tiniest detail could not go unnoticed when editing. for instance we had to make sure that the 180 degree rule worked in all shots and that things like objects and props did not randomly disapear. overall that was not as chalenging as making sure the actors movements went smoothly throughout the scenes as when showing a immidiate change in angle you must make sure that you have filmed the entrie action and edited the excact moment to create a seemless image

editing the visual parts of the film was chalenging. it was difficult to make sure that all the scenes perfectly linked to eachother in one seamless film. even the tiniest detail could not go unnoticed when editing. for instance we had to make sure that the 180 degree rule worked in all shots and that things like objects and props did not randomly disapear. overall that was not as chalenging as making sure the actors movements went smoothly throughout the scenes as when showing a immidiate change in angle you must make sure that you have filmed the entrie action and edited the excact moment to create a seemless image.

the actual editing itslef was trying but not overly difficult. using soundcut pro i was able to add various sound effects to make it seem more like a real film through adding things like footsteps to josh's movement and the sounds of him unlocking the door. it also allowed me to remove much of the background noise and make sure that all noises i wished to leave in sinked up properly to help avoid any continuity errors or things like people talking and cars going by.

the editing of the preliminary task had some unique chalenges. the first one was the filming itself which forced us to learn the purpose of the 180 degree rule in action. it also taught us that in film making you must take all sorts of different factors into account such as people and sounds in the background of your shots and things like the weather and amount of sunlight. it also showed us why things like continuity errors are so vital to avoid and we made sure that we iether wore the same clothes as we did in all the other scenes or alternatively made it so the difference was not noticalbe (for instance a charecter wearing a jacket in both scenes make it so the audience cannot tell the change in a shirt and a charecter sitting obscures view of their legs)

the 180 degree rule

the 180 degree rule is a basic guideline used in filming showing that two or more charecters should always have the same left or right angle as eachother.

this technique can provide some hindrances to filming certain scenes such as car chases and action scenes but can add much drama and significance to certain shots where a message or view is trying to be presented to the audience.