For the Final project we have been given a time allocation 3 times the size of we have previous been working too. This means there should be no excuses for quality of work in comparison if we produce something of similar length. Given this time I instantly am drawn to produce a film trailer, it has always been something I'd like to and I think would allow me to show my skills as a story writer and a cinematographer.
Ive been planning this for a while and there have been two feature film concepts that I am passionate about. The first is about a a child genius who is born with an exceptionally logical brain. After years of teaching he goes into scientific research and looks for the cure one of our biggest problems, cancer. During this time he comes across a girl who is the polar opposite to him, interested in the arts and the unexplained he falls for her. Then through the process in falling in love she sparks him to solve the puzzle and create the cure for cancer. He then has to deal with the fame and fortune that comes with this but yet through gaining all this attention loses the girl.
The second is about a group of college/university friends who can't afford to keep up buying the latest games and music. Instead they invest in the latest private server and use this to host files which if one buys can then be shared around the group. One of the group makes the connection and decides to go public and in term creates to first file sharing website. This the leads to the fame and fortune that they produce off the website causing friendships to be destroyed over money and power.
At the moment I am choosing to expand upon my second idea because it something I both am more interested in and know more about.
Monday, 24 February 2014
Change - Final MARM
Despite having three weeks to produce this project I definitely think that the final project did not sure the narrative as well as some of my previous projects. Instead of writing a 2minutes video I had intact written a 10minute short. After forcibly cutting out a whole scene and making dramatic cuts to each of the other segments the overall film did not run as smoothly as I wanted it to, and was picked up on by the tutors.
The picture overall is stunning from getting our hands on a C100 to use, and this my new definite favourite character but this is let down by the rest of the story. The acting is well played and I am impressed with the quality of the build, from smoothness of the shots to timing of focus pulling. Personally I feel the sound is incredible sketchy as a lot of it is rerecorded spot sounds to make up for problems the girls had on set. There are some clips where it feels the sound ruins the shot because of the off timing but that was mainly due batteries dying on set with the mic.
In future I think I really need to have a simpler narrative for shorter projects, instead trying to create a complex piece.
The picture overall is stunning from getting our hands on a C100 to use, and this my new definite favourite character but this is let down by the rest of the story. The acting is well played and I am impressed with the quality of the build, from smoothness of the shots to timing of focus pulling. Personally I feel the sound is incredible sketchy as a lot of it is rerecorded spot sounds to make up for problems the girls had on set. There are some clips where it feels the sound ruins the shot because of the off timing but that was mainly due batteries dying on set with the mic.
In future I think I really need to have a simpler narrative for shorter projects, instead trying to create a complex piece.
Change - Narrative Planning
After a number of discussions and some debates we finally have come with a final narrative for our project. The story is about a self centred boy with little appreciation for the relationships and people around him. In a family argument he then wishes that he didn't have to deal with all these problems/people, to which wakes up to find his family has disappeared and the world is empty. At first he enjoys the freedom that comes with an empty world, allowing him to do what he wants when he wants. However as the day draws to an end he begins to realise the mistake he has made and the importance of the things he took for granted.
We started planning the layout of the video and how the narrative was going to pan out, the shot list. This was a lot more difficult then expected. There were a few areas that were a little confused by what we should do regarding the timeframe. For example it was difficult to create the realisation from the character that he was in an empty world and can do what ever he pleases in such a short time period, and effectively. Then we wanted to both emphasise the fun he was having but also the disappoint and regret he goes through at the end effectively.
I ended splitting the story up into four segments, the family argument (which the story starts with), the travelling around realising the world is empty, the freedom and mayhem he then causes and the finally the stage he regrets what has happened. We could then come with ideas for each of the segments to what happens in each of them.
From these ideas I began to draw up a story board, which in turn I could create a shot list from. I made sure that the shortlist was a lot larger than needed and included all the shots that people had proposed. This meant that when it could to post production there was a library of footage to choose from rather that trying to search for clips that didn't exist. It is better to have to cut footage and scenes away having scene than not being able to view them in the first place.
We started planning the layout of the video and how the narrative was going to pan out, the shot list. This was a lot more difficult then expected. There were a few areas that were a little confused by what we should do regarding the timeframe. For example it was difficult to create the realisation from the character that he was in an empty world and can do what ever he pleases in such a short time period, and effectively. Then we wanted to both emphasise the fun he was having but also the disappoint and regret he goes through at the end effectively.
I ended splitting the story up into four segments, the family argument (which the story starts with), the travelling around realising the world is empty, the freedom and mayhem he then causes and the finally the stage he regrets what has happened. We could then come with ideas for each of the segments to what happens in each of them.
From these ideas I began to draw up a story board, which in turn I could create a shot list from. I made sure that the shortlist was a lot larger than needed and included all the shots that people had proposed. This meant that when it could to post production there was a library of footage to choose from rather that trying to search for clips that didn't exist. It is better to have to cut footage and scenes away having scene than not being able to view them in the first place.
Sunday, 23 February 2014
Change - Initial Ideas
For the next 3 weeks we have been given a project to make a short film around the concept of change. This is a week longer than any of our previous projects which positively gives me a little more time to plan the video.This potentially means that I wont be so stretched for time in the production and editing time-scale. Split into groups, I am working with Ashleigh and Miranda (both sound designers) which meant I would have to worry about the sound for the video and then Ryan who would help on the visual side of the video.
I first created a small mind map of all the words and topics I thought correlated with the term change, which I could then use to spawn ideas from. This was extremely useful as it let us produce a handful of ideas:
- The first and a favourite I came up with was a story about a Jewish family finally being allowed to walk free at the end of the war. The family would have previously been stuck in hiding underground a friends German family who were smuggling them away from the Nazi's but at the end of the war the Jewish family were now free to walk/do what they want. The whole narrative would be based on the change back to freedom from imprisonment for survival. However in such a short and low budget time-scale this would extremely hard to produce.
- The other second good idea was the story of a boy waking up to an empty world, after being in a family fight and wishes there disappearance his wish comes true. At first he enjoys the world being empty, allowing him to have the freedom to whatever he want with absolutely no constraints but after the some time he comes to regret his wish and appreciate the people/relations he once hated.
- This also could be expanded into some other ideas, one was waking up and instead of the people disappearing they were intact all dead. All the rebellious kid could see the effect his wish had had on his family. Another more artistic one was for the kid to wake up blind, and his wish had turned him that way so that he did not have to deal with seeing his family. However not what he intended by the wish it drives him mad and the emotional roller coaster he goes through.
- My final idea was based on breaking bad, and would be the diagnosis of someone with cancer. The dramatic change that person has now in their life knowing there time to live is a lot more limited, and a significant amount of that would go on trying to get rid of the cancer if that was possible.
Freedom and Liberty - Final Film
I am quite happy with the final film that we produced for this project. I think the idea behind the film was extremely good and if we had a longer time to produce this video it could have been a lot better than it actually was. The problem with this project is that we spent the majority of the time finalising the idea, giving little time to actually constructing the video. This forced me to actually act in the film and for Ryan to film the whole of it, with me only being able to offer other options.
Because we were finding it hard to make the significance of the Media/TV on the person and there fear we kept the physical TV in the background of multiple shots throughout the film to give them impression that it was following the character around, haunting him. However in the crit a lot of the students automatically made the assumption of post traumatic stress because the clip we should the TV playing was of a war film. In future if I was to recreate the video I think I would have a montage of the different violent TV shows which are based on real life occurrences such as CSI or Silent Witness.
Because we were finding it hard to make the significance of the Media/TV on the person and there fear we kept the physical TV in the background of multiple shots throughout the film to give them impression that it was following the character around, haunting him. However in the crit a lot of the students automatically made the assumption of post traumatic stress because the clip we should the TV playing was of a war film. In future if I was to recreate the video I think I would have a montage of the different violent TV shows which are based on real life occurrences such as CSI or Silent Witness.
Freedom and Liberty - Idea Construction
After having a list of different ideas to choose from I went away to research and plan them all, seeing which one I could potentially take the furthest. After some storyboards it was clear that my favourite story was about the emotional one based around agoraphobia. After talking to the other people in my crit and one of my tutors they gave some ideas to look at to build my idea.
After doing some research and teaming up with Ryan Gallagher to complete this project we came across a disorder called the mean work syndrome. This is a mental disorder closely linked with agoraphobia however is defined as a phenomenon whereby violence related content of mass media makes viewers believe the world is a lot more dangerous than it actually is. In other words it is where the sufferer watches violent content through TV such as films or TV programs which are fictional, and through constant viewing causes the sufferer to believe this happens in real life. So the sorry of the film will be about a character obsessed with watching telly to the point where it is haunting him, preventing him from leaving his own home.
Freedom and Liberty - Initial Ideas
So for the Freedom and Liberty after some brainstorming and mind mapping, I have come up with a few different Ideas to potentially create a 1 minute short from. These are:
- The first was a short story about the process of a boy or girl coming out about there sexuality to both themselves and their parents. The story could be developed around the individual actually coming to realise that they are gay or on the polar opposite their parents coming to accept that they have a homosexual child. Especially if the parents aren't used to the modern times were homosexuality is so openly accepted, it could potentially be a hard thing to understand.
- The second is probably the most stereotypical of them all and is based on the concept of freedom from poverty. I was thinking of a narrative about a young boy from a poor background and struggling family, by chance wins the lottery and the change it has on their lives.
- The third was small drug video about an addict who takes off on an out of body experience after consuming DMT. DMT (short for Dimethyltryptamine) also known as the 'spirit molecule' is a naturally produced neural hormone supposedly released in the brain when we die. It has been recorded to cause sever hallucinations on the subject who can smoke it, which have lead to outer body experiences like no other drug. The story could be about the trip this drug takes him on and then the reality he has to face as he 'comes down'.
- The fourth is a narrative about young child who is kidnapped and the process he/she goes through to escape. There will be a number of obstacles to overcome before the kid could escape. The main idea behind this narrative would to shoot it as if the film was a diary entry and the whole video was in the past with child narrating over it.
- The final idea and probably my favourite so far was about a character with the fear of leaving his/her house (agoraphobia). The story would be about the struggle the character goes through to overcome her fear to just leave her house. Something everyone doesn't even take into account can mean the whole world to another person. Agoraphobia is a panic disorder, even though being completely mental, it can cause physical symptoms such as severe shaking, vomiting and sweating. All which can be used to exaggerate the severeness of just opening a door.
- The first was a short story about the process of a boy or girl coming out about there sexuality to both themselves and their parents. The story could be developed around the individual actually coming to realise that they are gay or on the polar opposite their parents coming to accept that they have a homosexual child. Especially if the parents aren't used to the modern times were homosexuality is so openly accepted, it could potentially be a hard thing to understand.
- The second is probably the most stereotypical of them all and is based on the concept of freedom from poverty. I was thinking of a narrative about a young boy from a poor background and struggling family, by chance wins the lottery and the change it has on their lives.
- The third was small drug video about an addict who takes off on an out of body experience after consuming DMT. DMT (short for Dimethyltryptamine) also known as the 'spirit molecule' is a naturally produced neural hormone supposedly released in the brain when we die. It has been recorded to cause sever hallucinations on the subject who can smoke it, which have lead to outer body experiences like no other drug. The story could be about the trip this drug takes him on and then the reality he has to face as he 'comes down'.
- The fourth is a narrative about young child who is kidnapped and the process he/she goes through to escape. There will be a number of obstacles to overcome before the kid could escape. The main idea behind this narrative would to shoot it as if the film was a diary entry and the whole video was in the past with child narrating over it.
- The final idea and probably my favourite so far was about a character with the fear of leaving his/her house (agoraphobia). The story would be about the struggle the character goes through to overcome her fear to just leave her house. Something everyone doesn't even take into account can mean the whole world to another person. Agoraphobia is a panic disorder, even though being completely mental, it can cause physical symptoms such as severe shaking, vomiting and sweating. All which can be used to exaggerate the severeness of just opening a door.
Freedom and Liberty - Introduction
For this section we have been a two project based on the title, Freedom and Liberty. We watched a documentary, 'The Naked Ramblers', which is about a couple who attempted to walk from Lands End to John o'Groats naked. They were protesting for the freedom of the human body but were met by a mixed reception of haters and enthusiasts. It resulted in several arrests, prison sentences and relationship breakdowns. While watching the documentary, I understood there point of view to there reasons behind it and on the other hand those of the opposing people. This made me question about the theory of freedom. Amongst the class it caused a lot of speculation about what actually is freedom and that we are not truly free because of the laws our control abides by. However I found myself appreciating these laws instead of rebelling against them, for if it wasn't for these laws our society would not work any where near as well as it does and simple things like walking streets safely would be compromised. From this I started to think of ideas to create short film about, based on different peoples interpretation of freedom.
Title Sequence - Final
I am very happy with the final produce for the The Walking Dead trailer. In the Crit my other peers complimented how well the footage and sound worked together in unison to create a very chilling and dramatic title sequence.
I tried to keep the font of the text as basic as possible to it didn't subtract from the footage however I don't think it maximized the genre intended so if I was going to revisit the project I'd experiment with different font. One of the other things mentioned was replacement of the last shot with a time-lapse of a watch hands spinning on the surface. I think a macro shot of an old fob watch would have worked very well as the final shot instead of a broken fence which I used.
Overall I am glad we were assigned this project of title sequences, as it had made me appreciate them a lot more than previously. I never before realised the complexity and importance that the Intro Title sequences has on the film. In summary the title sequence sets the tone of the film and prepares the viewers for what they are about to be involved in. If this is messed up and doesnt grab the audiences attention they could miss something key to the narrative of the film, therefore not getting the full experience the director wants to provide.
I tried to keep the font of the text as basic as possible to it didn't subtract from the footage however I don't think it maximized the genre intended so if I was going to revisit the project I'd experiment with different font. One of the other things mentioned was replacement of the last shot with a time-lapse of a watch hands spinning on the surface. I think a macro shot of an old fob watch would have worked very well as the final shot instead of a broken fence which I used.
Overall I am glad we were assigned this project of title sequences, as it had made me appreciate them a lot more than previously. I never before realised the complexity and importance that the Intro Title sequences has on the film. In summary the title sequence sets the tone of the film and prepares the viewers for what they are about to be involved in. If this is messed up and doesnt grab the audiences attention they could miss something key to the narrative of the film, therefore not getting the full experience the director wants to provide.
Title Sequences - Production
After re-watching some of The Walking Dead I have come up with a list of different shots and objects which are directly relate-able in the series, as title sequence are to set the tone and prepare the viewer for what they about to experience. A title sequence should be keeping with the film it precedes, it should not seek to overshadow or upstage it. The four main things I wanted to consider were:
- Legitability (understandable for the audience)
- Fit for purpose and suitability to the show/film
- Pace of shots/objects being introduced
- The emotional response triggered from these objects.
After conversing with Miranda about the sound, she went away and produced a very chilling track that just lasts over 30 seconds. I thought it was completely perfect for the The Walking Dead, because even though it is classed as a TV Drama, it is on the border between a thriller and horror series because of the zombie epidemic this show is based around. I have borrowed a motorised glide track from the CLR to take time-lapse shots of different overgrown abandon rooms/places. These time lapsed shots are then going to be sped up and fade into each other in correlation with the music to add the titles.
Because I am going to be filming over long period of time and sped up I decided to try out filming in HDR using magic Lantern. Magic Lantern is a firmware hack for DSLR's which enables numerous features we usually wouldn't have access to in the canon firmware, one of these is HDR filming. HDR filming is where the camera shoots between two frames which are at two different ISO's. This means one frame will be over exposed to get all the dark areas of the shot and one frame will be underexposed to get all the light areas of the shot. Then using a software it combines these two frames into one to produce an image with a higher dynamic range. With grading this can potentially produce a higher contrasted and nicer shot, which would suit the genre well.
The combination of the cold sound and the higher quality time lapse shots of deteriorated I think will work very well.
- Legitability (understandable for the audience)
- Fit for purpose and suitability to the show/film
- Pace of shots/objects being introduced
- The emotional response triggered from these objects.
After conversing with Miranda about the sound, she went away and produced a very chilling track that just lasts over 30 seconds. I thought it was completely perfect for the The Walking Dead, because even though it is classed as a TV Drama, it is on the border between a thriller and horror series because of the zombie epidemic this show is based around. I have borrowed a motorised glide track from the CLR to take time-lapse shots of different overgrown abandon rooms/places. These time lapsed shots are then going to be sped up and fade into each other in correlation with the music to add the titles.
Because I am going to be filming over long period of time and sped up I decided to try out filming in HDR using magic Lantern. Magic Lantern is a firmware hack for DSLR's which enables numerous features we usually wouldn't have access to in the canon firmware, one of these is HDR filming. HDR filming is where the camera shoots between two frames which are at two different ISO's. This means one frame will be over exposed to get all the dark areas of the shot and one frame will be underexposed to get all the light areas of the shot. Then using a software it combines these two frames into one to produce an image with a higher dynamic range. With grading this can potentially produce a higher contrasted and nicer shot, which would suit the genre well.
The combination of the cold sound and the higher quality time lapse shots of deteriorated I think will work very well.
Title Sequences
For our next two week projects we have set the task of planning and creating two title sequences for out of a list of genres which we would then present to a group. The title sequences could be as long as we wanted but had to try and suit the genre to the best of our ability. These genres were; Bollywood, Spaghetti Western, Thriller, TV Drama and News/Current Affairs. As an aspiring cinematographer I was looking at trying to steer away from animation and look at filmed title sequences.
The first two genres that instantly caught my attention were TV drama and Thriller. I looked at a few title sequences that fall into that those genres from the Film Seven or the TV series Broadwalk Empire. From comparing them both they seemed to have a very similar style of production, with slow paced camera movements of significant objects or people starring in the movie/TV series.
Seven which is a cross between a thriller and a horror film has a title sequence made up of tracking shots across several different degraded objects which have a relation to the crew. From photographers for the Director of Photography to clothes for the props and fashion designers. Broadwalk Empire's Title sequence is made up of several tracking and panning close up shots of a well dressed gangster before he walks off towards the Broadwalk.
My Favourite TV drama/thriller of all time is The Walking Dead so this style of filming would be perfectly suited to fit that show. The Walking Dead is about a zombie apocalypse which results in the destruction of society, so the conventional title sequence would be of desolate areas/places and broken objects. The only thing I know will be a struggle to produce would be the soundtrack for the title sequence, therefore I have teamed up with a sound designer to produce a tranquil and thrilling track to suit the The Walking Dead.
These are all concepts I need to research and plan before the construction takes place.
The first two genres that instantly caught my attention were TV drama and Thriller. I looked at a few title sequences that fall into that those genres from the Film Seven or the TV series Broadwalk Empire. From comparing them both they seemed to have a very similar style of production, with slow paced camera movements of significant objects or people starring in the movie/TV series.
Seven which is a cross between a thriller and a horror film has a title sequence made up of tracking shots across several different degraded objects which have a relation to the crew. From photographers for the Director of Photography to clothes for the props and fashion designers. Broadwalk Empire's Title sequence is made up of several tracking and panning close up shots of a well dressed gangster before he walks off towards the Broadwalk.
My Favourite TV drama/thriller of all time is The Walking Dead so this style of filming would be perfectly suited to fit that show. The Walking Dead is about a zombie apocalypse which results in the destruction of society, so the conventional title sequence would be of desolate areas/places and broken objects. The only thing I know will be a struggle to produce would be the soundtrack for the title sequence, therefore I have teamed up with a sound designer to produce a tranquil and thrilling track to suit the The Walking Dead.
These are all concepts I need to research and plan before the construction takes place.
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