Film 4 Ideologies

Looking for eric



Looking for eric shows the film 4 ideology, as the characters are working class, unknown and lead boring lives. Eric is a single parent, living in a messy house, with a boring job and has no control over his children. This shows how film 4 deal with making social realist films, that portray the typical daily grind of a british family. The film is set in Britain, this is evident through the northern accents, the theme of football, the weather etc. This is typical of film 4 as they only spend around 500,000 on each film, so they don't have a big enough budget to do expensive special effects or film in exotic locations, that's why their films seem un cut and rough, showing the honest side of british lifestyle.Film 4 focus on producing non escapist films, by portraying real situations, such us single parenting. It has versimilitude.



Submarine



Submarine represents the characters as young and experimentative children. There is the theme of love and awkwardness throught the film. This shows how film 4 are not predictable and really get the audience thinking about what's happening. The setting is mostly in school, home and the rural scenery. This re- establishes, how film 4 stay away from the hollywood type glamour and just shows the mudane gritty stuff. Yet again, it is a non escapist film. Even though there is romance in the film, it isn't your typical lovey dovey hollywood romance. Its very awkward and raw.


Four Lions



Four Lions characters are represented as dopey muslim terrorists. This is typical of a film 4 as they are touching on a political and controversial topic, however they do this through comedy. The film is set in Britain as well as over seas, this is surprising as film 4 have a low budget and also the stunts such as explosions are expensive, so it is not typical of them. By putting them in the desert just emphasises that they are terrorists, because that's how society sees them as. Their accents, the banter and the police uniforms make it easy for a british audience to relate to it, as they will recongize it, however the music, the culture and values of muslims can also alienate the british audience, but it is designed in such away by showing a different perspective.

Edit Workshop Evaluation

I demonstrated my knowledge of the following in my sequence:

I kept to the 180 degree rule through out the filming process. This is shown in my clip as Ellie always remains on the left of the screen, while Kalkidan always remains on the right.

I also kept to the Rule of thirds, but on one occasion we broke this rule, when Kalkidan was coming down the stairs. Other then that, the eyes were always a third a way down the frame.

 

Match on action was used when Kalkidan opened a door and then walked through it. We made sure this looked as fluent as possible.

Shot reverse shot was used when the two characters were talking. To emphasize this,  we made it over the shoulder shots to see the characters reactions.

During this production, the first time we filmed, we found it challenging because it was evident we sometimes forgot to keep to the guidelines of the 180 degree rule and rule of thirds. In addition, we also filmed certain shots wrong like the shot reverse shot and the match on action. So, due to our lack of understanding we had to film again. Below is our first sequence, which clearly contains many errors, that we then corrected when we re filmed. If i were to film again, i would make sure i had a great understanding of the task and also add in more creative shots e.g. handheld to make it more exciting.

I did not experience any challenges in post production process. I found it very easy and simple. I enjoyed using the new imovie software, it was definitely less confusing to operate and the layout was so much better then the old imovie. If i were to edit again, i would explore the software more and use the different tools more e.g. the sound effects of the clock ticking to emphasis the clock in the cut way.

After re filming i feel like my strengths were our narrative idea because we had to think of a story line that met the brief but also could occur at the setting of a high school. Furthermore, i feel my other strength was editing. I tried keeping the shots short and relevant to the story as the time limit was 45 seconds.

I feel like if i had a better understanding before i went out to film in the first place, it would have prevented re doing the sequence. I also think we was thinking too much about the narrative then demonstrating the techniques, instead it should of been a simple idea, with creative ideas on how to portray the techniques. Lastly, there were times i forgot about the rule of thirds. Its a very important guideline which adds realism.

Overall if i was to re do this again, i would do more research before hand and i would make sure its possible to film the things we want. I would make the 180 degree rule and rule of thirds, my top priority and make sure i follow through with the guidelines. I would also add various shot types, just to make the narrative interesting for the viewer. Lastly, if i was to approach this task again, i would be more organised and make sure i am always thinking ahead and using my time more wisely.

Continuity Exercise

Continuity Editing Exercise

The scenario given was named 'The Encounter'. As a starting point we was given a flexible brief, where a character opens a door, walks across the room to the other character, and from there a few lines of dialogue are exchanged. Using this idea we had to think of ways to make this brief creative while still making sure there was a range of techniques involved, like different camera shots and angles. We then used the storyboard to portray our narrative clearly.

During my film making process i have learnt four main fundamental technical skills to help make my preliminary task look affective:

Match on action which is a editing technique in which one shot cuts to another shot, portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. For example in our clip we had a character walking through a door. She opens the door from the outside, then the clip cuts inside where the action continues of her walking through the door into the room. This is important as it creates a clear sense of continuity - this flow of action creates a visual bridge for the audience which prevents confusion.

180 degree rule is a filming guideline which states that the camera should always be placed somewhere inside 180 degrees on a particular side of an invisible line of a shot. If the camera crosses this line it will create confusion for the audience, as it will look like the characters in the shot have suddenly swapped places. 

For example me and my partner made sure we kept the camera on the left of the room through out the whole filming process and this evident when you watch our clip. This allows the audience to have a greater overall understanding of what is going on.

However, this rule can only be broken if the shot shows the camera crossing over to the other side of the character, re-establishing the shot. This is important as it prevents any experience of disorientation for the viewer.

Shot reverse shot is another editing technique used when characters are in a conversation or looking at each other/objects. For instance, the sequence would show shot A, then it cut to shot B, then cut back to shot A again. 

This is important as it informs the audience about what the character is looking at (from either a point of view or over the shoulder). This aids the audience to understand the story and it also retains continuity by not distorting the viewers sense of surroundings and not breaking in the dialogue, so it flows as it would in reality. In addition, it is usually used to show the characters facial expressions and reactions.

Rule of thirds is a concept where the frame is divided into nine imaginary sections, as shown on the left. These are guidelines for framing the shots. So for instance if you was filming a shot of a person, it is important that their eyes lie 1/3 way down the frame always.

For this exercise i worked with Lorelle Thompson. We are both very creative and understanding of each others idea and thoughts in a respectful way. So when we work together everything seems to flow and we get stuck into the work very quickly. Moreover we work well as a team and i feel that we learn alot from each other. I have worked with her many times in the past and this is why i wanted to work with her for this particular task. Overall, i think our grouping was a success and even though there was a few clashes of opinions during the filming process, we got through them with a mutual agreements.

In order to develop our scenario we thought of a creative storyline where there is a situation at school and a girl is being interrogated for allegedly being with her friends boyfriend. We mutually decided to do this, as it was a flexible situation to which we could easily demonstrate the key media language skills. We then drew out a storyboard in specific detail in order to make the filming process easier. To make the film seem exciting we made sure we had an interesting storyline and that we used various shots and angles to grab the audiences attention. For example, in our film a nervous girl is in a room with guards(which was filmed as mid shots and close ups), this was done in order to portray the amount of pressure the character was under. Then this scene quickly cut to another person hurriedly walking(which was filmed as handheld) towards a certain destination, this was done to add mystery and make the viewer question 'Who is this person and why are in such a rush?'. We did not use any props so we made sure the dialogue was very intense, 'Well, have you done anything?'. There is a dark and bully type feel to it and yet again it draws the viewer in and makes the wonder 'What has she done that's so bad?'.

The storyboard was useful at a certain extent. It was good as we had clear guideline on what to do next and we never forgot anything. Our orginal idea was to have a man being interrogated by his boss about drugs that have disappeared. It was only when we went out to start filming that me and my partner relised that this was not going to work because the characters needed to be boys and the people we wanted to use were unreliable and not available. We were then going to do the same story with girls but then it would not come across as serious and realistic to the viewer. So instead we kept the same concept of interrogation but changed the topic of drugs to boys. Lastly, our idea was very long so it had to be cut short. Other then some minor setbacks we stuck to the storyboard.