Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Evaluation: Part 2
(Below is extra footage of important points that i personnaly missed out in the pervious video.)
Monday, 29 April 2013
Evaluation: Part 1
This is the brief i was working towards.
The brief clearly states that we are to make a British Social Realist film for Film 4, therefore we must 'conform to the conventions of Social Realist genre'. I feel i have met this expectation as me and my partner made it evident who we were making the film for by showing the Film 4 logo. Also, we clearly portrayed the genre of British Social Realism through many ways, on of which is through the mise-en-scene. Our main character, Leah lives in a council flat, this location is conventional in British Social Realist films, as it connotes themes such as poverty and establishes the character a working class. An example is Wasp, as the main characters residence is also in a council flat.
The brief also stated that their should be a clear sense of 'graphical' and 'editing' style. I feel i have met this expectation as the graphics and editing were specifically chosen to have specific connotations. For instance, for our typography, we picked a style that visually looked like a maze, as it had gaps. In addition, i felt that we made the edit quite precise and made sure it followed and looked like a Social Realist film. For example we used continuity editing and we made sure that it cut at the right moment, so that the position of her hands were the same in the shot before and after the cut. Doing this meant the action was not disrupted and it grabbed the audiences attention at is was such an emotional scene, that was designed so that audience sympathise with Leah and side with her.
The brief states that our film should be aimed at 'British 16-24 year olds'. I feel that i have met this requirement as there are many cultural references, such us the London underground, which has more meaning to someone who lives in London. The iconic sign of the subway, would have more appeal to our target audience of 16-24 year olds, as they are most likely to use public transport, since they might not be of the legal age to drive and public transport is more affordable.
Furthermore, our character Leah, is in the age range of our target audience. So, the audience can personally identify to Leah as their is a mutual identification between character and audience. Lastly the brief states that 'all visual and audio material' must be original. I feel i have met this specification as the diegetic music played (0:15-1:48), is copyright free since my partners friend gave permission for us to use it - ( for further information about the music chosen can be found on this blog post - http://kalkidanbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/music-for-opening-sequence.html)
Our opening sequence is entitled 'Maze'. The word as well as the style of typography relates to our narrative as it mirrors Leah's life, and highlights her desperation to escape from her abusive boyfriend in an attempt to create a more positive future for her baby. The title signifies how there is no escape because she is working class and she is unable to afford to escape as she cannot travel far enough due to limited money. A further connotation is that the confinement of a maze almost portrays the never ending cycle because she always finds her way back to the start of the maze and never finds her way out. The deep meaning the title holds, sets up the themes our narrative revolves around, which are; isolation, aspiration/escape, poverty, class and violence (domestic). We gained inspiration for our film title by looking at many other British social realism film titles and discussing what the connotations of each title were in relation to the content and themes. An example of a British social realism film that inspired our title was 'Fish Tank'. This title connotes that the main character/s may have big dreams, ambitions and aspire to be something great in life but are limited as to what they can be. Therefore, they cannot escape the environment they've been raised in as a fish tank is very small and enclosed. The fish would represent the main character/s and the fish tank would represent then environment in which they've been raised, connoting the environment is of working class and they are trapped within it due to limited resources.
We have used McKee's five part narrative theory to structure our narrative. So, the opening sequence begins with a smash mouth opening (exposition), which includes a series of fast paced shots of Leah destroying a letter and packing her belongings. Then she looks in the mirror and explores the damage done to her. Next she gets confronted by her neighbour but ignores her, she then hitches a ride on the bus to travel to the train station - (A detailed description of the narrative can be found on this blog post -http://kalkidanbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/whole-film-narrative.html). This technique of a non linear start and a smash mouth opening, set up the rest of the narrative as everything revolves around Leah and it is clear she is trying to run away from someone due to a problem (the agent of change), which is in the form of a letter. Therefore, the audience will have many enigma codes that will be answered as the film goes on through the
British Social Realism films take inspiration from the real world and apply it in their films as a theme. They do this to portray to the audience what life is really like. For example, in Fish Tank Mia aspires to be a dancer. However, her lifestyle restricts her from escaping and achieving her dreams. Her mother is a bad single parent that parties and doesn't care for her children. This has led to the children being corrupted as they smoke, alcohol and Mia experiences under age sex. So, this film deals with many themes, that occur in the real world, such as aspirations/ escape, corruption of youth, parenthood, class and many more. Me and my partner have taken this technique and have revolved our narrative around a real situation that occurred in the news. On the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17787243) a 16 year old girl suffered domestic abuse from her boyfriend. Using this as inspiration, we took this idea and developed it further through to use of three important themes in our narrative, which are; domestic abuse, escape/aspiration and isolation.
We looked at the theme domestic abuse, where you see Leah face bruised and battered. This was influenced by London to Brighton, where the smash mouth opening reveals the woman's swollen black eye, we thought it was an opportunity to raise enigma codes from the beginning since you only see the after effects and not what caused the abuse.
In our sequence we explored the theme of escape and aspiration through the mise-en-scene. Leah is on a moving bus going past a long row of council flats. The urban location of council estates represents poverty and being working class, so we had Leah look out the window during this shot, as it connoted how she is trying to escape this lifestyle. This was inspired by bullet boy, as he also looks out the car window and sees his home - the council flat.
Lastly, me and my partner explored the theme of isolation through the camera work. Leah ignores her neighbour and walks off in silence, so the long shot used, connotes how Leah is in a bad situation and is dealing with it by excluding herself from everyone else around her. This was inspired by Shifty, when the long shot of the male at the bus stop reinforces how lonely and isolated he is.
The brief clearly states that we are to make a British Social Realist film for Film 4, therefore we must 'conform to the conventions of Social Realist genre'. I feel i have met this expectation as me and my partner made it evident who we were making the film for by showing the Film 4 logo. Also, we clearly portrayed the genre of British Social Realism through many ways, on of which is through the mise-en-scene. Our main character, Leah lives in a council flat, this location is conventional in British Social Realist films, as it connotes themes such as poverty and establishes the character a working class. An example is Wasp, as the main characters residence is also in a council flat.
The brief also stated that their should be a clear sense of 'graphical' and 'editing' style. I feel i have met this expectation as the graphics and editing were specifically chosen to have specific connotations. For instance, for our typography, we picked a style that visually looked like a maze, as it had gaps. In addition, i felt that we made the edit quite precise and made sure it followed and looked like a Social Realist film. For example we used continuity editing and we made sure that it cut at the right moment, so that the position of her hands were the same in the shot before and after the cut. Doing this meant the action was not disrupted and it grabbed the audiences attention at is was such an emotional scene, that was designed so that audience sympathise with Leah and side with her.
The brief states that our film should be aimed at 'British 16-24 year olds'. I feel that i have met this requirement as there are many cultural references, such us the London underground, which has more meaning to someone who lives in London. The iconic sign of the subway, would have more appeal to our target audience of 16-24 year olds, as they are most likely to use public transport, since they might not be of the legal age to drive and public transport is more affordable.
Furthermore, our character Leah, is in the age range of our target audience. So, the audience can personally identify to Leah as their is a mutual identification between character and audience. Lastly the brief states that 'all visual and audio material' must be original. I feel i have met this specification as the diegetic music played (0:15-1:48), is copyright free since my partners friend gave permission for us to use it - ( for further information about the music chosen can be found on this blog post - http://kalkidanbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/music-for-opening-sequence.html)
Our opening sequence is entitled 'Maze'. The word as well as the style of typography relates to our narrative as it mirrors Leah's life, and highlights her desperation to escape from her abusive boyfriend in an attempt to create a more positive future for her baby. The title signifies how there is no escape because she is working class and she is unable to afford to escape as she cannot travel far enough due to limited money. A further connotation is that the confinement of a maze almost portrays the never ending cycle because she always finds her way back to the start of the maze and never finds her way out. The deep meaning the title holds, sets up the themes our narrative revolves around, which are; isolation, aspiration/escape, poverty, class and violence (domestic). We gained inspiration for our film title by looking at many other British social realism film titles and discussing what the connotations of each title were in relation to the content and themes. An example of a British social realism film that inspired our title was 'Fish Tank'. This title connotes that the main character/s may have big dreams, ambitions and aspire to be something great in life but are limited as to what they can be. Therefore, they cannot escape the environment they've been raised in as a fish tank is very small and enclosed. The fish would represent the main character/s and the fish tank would represent then environment in which they've been raised, connoting the environment is of working class and they are trapped within it due to limited resources.
We have used McKee's five part narrative theory to structure our narrative. So, the opening sequence begins with a smash mouth opening (exposition), which includes a series of fast paced shots of Leah destroying a letter and packing her belongings. Then she looks in the mirror and explores the damage done to her. Next she gets confronted by her neighbour but ignores her, she then hitches a ride on the bus to travel to the train station - (A detailed description of the narrative can be found on this blog post -http://kalkidanbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/whole-film-narrative.html). This technique of a non linear start and a smash mouth opening, set up the rest of the narrative as everything revolves around Leah and it is clear she is trying to run away from someone due to a problem (the agent of change), which is in the form of a letter. Therefore, the audience will have many enigma codes that will be answered as the film goes on through the
conflict complication, elaboration, climax/resolution and coda.
British Social Realism films take inspiration from the real world and apply it in their films as a theme. They do this to portray to the audience what life is really like. For example, in Fish Tank Mia aspires to be a dancer. However, her lifestyle restricts her from escaping and achieving her dreams. Her mother is a bad single parent that parties and doesn't care for her children. This has led to the children being corrupted as they smoke, alcohol and Mia experiences under age sex. So, this film deals with many themes, that occur in the real world, such as aspirations/ escape, corruption of youth, parenthood, class and many more. Me and my partner have taken this technique and have revolved our narrative around a real situation that occurred in the news. On the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17787243) a 16 year old girl suffered domestic abuse from her boyfriend. Using this as inspiration, we took this idea and developed it further through to use of three important themes in our narrative, which are; domestic abuse, escape/aspiration and isolation.
We looked at the theme domestic abuse, where you see Leah face bruised and battered. This was influenced by London to Brighton, where the smash mouth opening reveals the woman's swollen black eye, we thought it was an opportunity to raise enigma codes from the beginning since you only see the after effects and not what caused the abuse.
In our sequence we explored the theme of escape and aspiration through the mise-en-scene. Leah is on a moving bus going past a long row of council flats. The urban location of council estates represents poverty and being working class, so we had Leah look out the window during this shot, as it connoted how she is trying to escape this lifestyle. This was inspired by bullet boy, as he also looks out the car window and sees his home - the council flat.
Lastly, me and my partner explored the theme of isolation through the camera work. Leah ignores her neighbour and walks off in silence, so the long shot used, connotes how Leah is in a bad situation and is dealing with it by excluding herself from everyone else around her. This was inspired by Shifty, when the long shot of the male at the bus stop reinforces how lonely and isolated he is.
Saturday, 27 April 2013
Project Log - Week 10
In this post, I approached each issue I faced in each lesson and also talked about how I solved this issue. Moreover, the issues of sound and how I resolved sound, has been addressed in detail in lesson 3.
Lesson 1: Me and my partner were not able to edit today because our actresses that plays Leah was not available for the whole two weeks of the Easter break. So, today we set up the final details of our plans to film tomorrow. We planned to shoot from break time, our media lesson with sir and also lunch time - giving us roughly 2 hours. In addition, we checked our list of what we had to reshoot, making sure we thought about continuity and considered the feedback given by miss. Once this was completed we messaged the actresses stating clearly what time we was meeting as well as making sure mise en scene was the same as last time e.g. Costume and makeup - a problem that we noticed was that the blood stain on the actress's face in our sequence would not be the same. Therefore, we noted down that we had to manipulate the camera in such away that you do not see her face. Furthermore, it worked in our favour because we do not want the audience to see Leah's face until the mirror scene - where she reveals the bruises and bloody nose. So, it adds mystery and keeps the audience on their toes as they want to know who she is, therefore they give all their attention to find out. Lastly, my partner and I utilised the rest of the lesson time finishing off a blog post entitled "why we decided to alter our narrative".
Lesson 2: Today focused on filming the shots we needed to reshoot. We accomplished our goal. Once this was done, my teacher watched our opening sequence and told me what could be improved. He gave me some very useful advice telling me that not everything has to flow when it comes to the action. He advised to play around with the shots a bit more and cut them down. However most importantly making sure they have a certain meaning you are trying to convey. For instance one of our shots was 23 seconds long ( the mirror scene) he knew we were trying to slow down the action after the chaos of the smash mouth opening and just get the audience to focus on Leah's bruised face and in turn they shall sympathise for her. Sir commented saying it was just too long! And it slowed down the action way too much. So after cutting it down to 8 seconds, I instantly saw a great improvement and just after a simple cut, the scene became tense and created a sad atmosphere that we want our audience to feel. So today I have learnt how every shot must have its relevance and portray something that will aid the audience to think more deeply about what they are watching.
Lesson 3: Me and my partner uploaded the content that we filmed during lesson 2. We edited the footage as well as replacing shots. This was not enough time therefore we came after school and continue to edit up until 7:00. We came across many issues, one of which was the sound because a Leah takes out her headphones, we wanted the music to dim down. However, it was not complying and the music started to become echo like. To solve this we had to cut the music twice. (Before and after the shot of her taking out then putting back in her headphones). The next problem however was that we had to make the music flow, so there was no break( couldnt hear the gap in the cuts). The only way this could be solved was by manually matching the sounds perfectly - this took up a lot if our time but in the end we figured it out. Furthermore, we had to play around with the sound perspective as sometimes the music was too loud an you could not hear the diegetic sounds eg toilet flushing, therefore we had to balance the sounds so neither was overpowering. The last problem we had was the length our opening sequence - it was too short, coming up to a total of 1:09. To resolve this issue we looked through extra cut aways or any other shots we could use that had relevance to our sequence. So instead of our sequence ending on the scene where Leah walks through the subway. It was extended so you then saw her walking up the stairs and then later entering Newbury park station. Lastly, we placed the first few production credits that came before the sequence started into iMovie, as it was a separate shot an did not lay over any footage. In addition, we quickly imported all of our graphics onto Final Cut, ready to be place upon the footage tomorrow.
Lesson 4: This lesson focused on graphics only! We spent time trying to place graphics over the footage but this task was not easy. Due to our lack of knowledge of how to use the programme it took a while to get used to. Therefore wasting much needed time. My partner placed all the graphics in except the title. We did not have enough lesson time to put the title in as we unfortunately shared the mac with another group, meaning we had to get off. Therefore, I came after school to quickly insert the title but I soon found out my partner did not put in the graphics properly as the footage of our opening sequence was cut up with the graphics in between the footage rather then appearing on top of the footage. So I had to restart everything and another problem soon came about. Our graphics were dark and so was the footage therefore you could not read the graphics properly. After a lot of manipulation it was decided that the graphics should come at opposite ends if the screen (so one graphics would appear of the left of the screen, it would then disappear and then another graphic would appear onto the right of the screen). This technique then solved the above issue. Once this was done, I placed the title on top of the subway scene in order to emphasize Leah's isolation as well as connoting literally how she is stuck in a maze since she's in a subway alone. Then touches were added like adding a fade in and out of the title, this was inspired by what was done to the title in This Is England. Once the footage was rendered it was just a case of watching the graphics through and playing around with the duration as it had to be long enough for the audience to read (average if 4-5 seconds). Once I was content with the final sequence it was uploaded onto youtube - below is our final opening sequence.
Lesson 1: Me and my partner were not able to edit today because our actresses that plays Leah was not available for the whole two weeks of the Easter break. So, today we set up the final details of our plans to film tomorrow. We planned to shoot from break time, our media lesson with sir and also lunch time - giving us roughly 2 hours. In addition, we checked our list of what we had to reshoot, making sure we thought about continuity and considered the feedback given by miss. Once this was completed we messaged the actresses stating clearly what time we was meeting as well as making sure mise en scene was the same as last time e.g. Costume and makeup - a problem that we noticed was that the blood stain on the actress's face in our sequence would not be the same. Therefore, we noted down that we had to manipulate the camera in such away that you do not see her face. Furthermore, it worked in our favour because we do not want the audience to see Leah's face until the mirror scene - where she reveals the bruises and bloody nose. So, it adds mystery and keeps the audience on their toes as they want to know who she is, therefore they give all their attention to find out. Lastly, my partner and I utilised the rest of the lesson time finishing off a blog post entitled "why we decided to alter our narrative".
Lesson 2: Today focused on filming the shots we needed to reshoot. We accomplished our goal. Once this was done, my teacher watched our opening sequence and told me what could be improved. He gave me some very useful advice telling me that not everything has to flow when it comes to the action. He advised to play around with the shots a bit more and cut them down. However most importantly making sure they have a certain meaning you are trying to convey. For instance one of our shots was 23 seconds long ( the mirror scene) he knew we were trying to slow down the action after the chaos of the smash mouth opening and just get the audience to focus on Leah's bruised face and in turn they shall sympathise for her. Sir commented saying it was just too long! And it slowed down the action way too much. So after cutting it down to 8 seconds, I instantly saw a great improvement and just after a simple cut, the scene became tense and created a sad atmosphere that we want our audience to feel. So today I have learnt how every shot must have its relevance and portray something that will aid the audience to think more deeply about what they are watching.
Lesson 3: Me and my partner uploaded the content that we filmed during lesson 2. We edited the footage as well as replacing shots. This was not enough time therefore we came after school and continue to edit up until 7:00. We came across many issues, one of which was the sound because a Leah takes out her headphones, we wanted the music to dim down. However, it was not complying and the music started to become echo like. To solve this we had to cut the music twice. (Before and after the shot of her taking out then putting back in her headphones). The next problem however was that we had to make the music flow, so there was no break( couldnt hear the gap in the cuts). The only way this could be solved was by manually matching the sounds perfectly - this took up a lot if our time but in the end we figured it out. Furthermore, we had to play around with the sound perspective as sometimes the music was too loud an you could not hear the diegetic sounds eg toilet flushing, therefore we had to balance the sounds so neither was overpowering. The last problem we had was the length our opening sequence - it was too short, coming up to a total of 1:09. To resolve this issue we looked through extra cut aways or any other shots we could use that had relevance to our sequence. So instead of our sequence ending on the scene where Leah walks through the subway. It was extended so you then saw her walking up the stairs and then later entering Newbury park station. Lastly, we placed the first few production credits that came before the sequence started into iMovie, as it was a separate shot an did not lay over any footage. In addition, we quickly imported all of our graphics onto Final Cut, ready to be place upon the footage tomorrow.
Lesson 4: This lesson focused on graphics only! We spent time trying to place graphics over the footage but this task was not easy. Due to our lack of knowledge of how to use the programme it took a while to get used to. Therefore wasting much needed time. My partner placed all the graphics in except the title. We did not have enough lesson time to put the title in as we unfortunately shared the mac with another group, meaning we had to get off. Therefore, I came after school to quickly insert the title but I soon found out my partner did not put in the graphics properly as the footage of our opening sequence was cut up with the graphics in between the footage rather then appearing on top of the footage. So I had to restart everything and another problem soon came about. Our graphics were dark and so was the footage therefore you could not read the graphics properly. After a lot of manipulation it was decided that the graphics should come at opposite ends if the screen (so one graphics would appear of the left of the screen, it would then disappear and then another graphic would appear onto the right of the screen). This technique then solved the above issue. Once this was done, I placed the title on top of the subway scene in order to emphasize Leah's isolation as well as connoting literally how she is stuck in a maze since she's in a subway alone. Then touches were added like adding a fade in and out of the title, this was inspired by what was done to the title in This Is England. Once the footage was rendered it was just a case of watching the graphics through and playing around with the duration as it had to be long enough for the audience to read (average if 4-5 seconds). Once I was content with the final sequence it was uploaded onto youtube - below is our final opening sequence.
Project Log - Week 9
In this post I will be highlighting the problems I have faced in each lesson and how I have overcome these issues, since I felt the problems were to specific to answer generally. Moreover, I will also be talking about the feedback I received from my audience and teacher in lesson 3 and how we acknowledged the comments and made sure me and my partner made improvements.
Lesson 1: Today me and my partners aim was to look through our rough final edit of the opening sequence and see if we could make any more further changes. There were many alterations we made in our sequence. Our aim was to have a smash mouth opening and me and my partner realised that the establishing shot which is the first shot you see) was too long and killed the atmosphere of tension and fast action we wanted to create, therefore we moved the shot just before the shot of Leah walking out the flats, so the audience get a quick view of the area she lives in, in order to emphasise the theme of poverty and escape. Moreover, we shortened the second shot of her opening the door and rushing in, for the same reason ( it dragged on, therefore loosing the quality of a smash mouth opening), so we cut out the part where she is attempting to open the door, instead it jumps straight into the action of her partly already through the door coming into the flat and then bangs the door loudly. We made this change as we wanted it to be quick and raise enigma codes within the audience like ' why is she in such a rush?' 'who is she?'.
Lesson 2: This lesson mostly focused on sound. So continuing on from yesterday, the next change we made was making the point of shot shorter (11 seconds to 8 seconds), yet again, just keeping what is relevant to the narrative and has meaning. The biggest change revolved around the scene where the neighbour and Leah are talking. We wanted a certain sound to play over a different shot and also makes it sound distant ( as its from Leah's perspective). In order to achieve this we detached the sound from the shot, deleted the shot and then moved the audio of ' Oi Leah' to the shot we wanted, which is of the neighbour rushing out the flat but then the sound continues over the next shot of Leah taking off her headphones and turning round to see who is calling for her. Moreover, to make the sound seem more distance, we faded the sound to around 30% in order to achieve sound perspective. Lastly, we cut the shot of the neighbour saying 'Leah ... Well fuck you then' to ' Well fuck you then'.
Lesson 3: Today is the deadline for the draft of our opening sequence! Me and my partner quickly uploaded the Film 4 logo into the beginning of our sequence since the brief states we are making a film for them. We then watched Film 4 films for inspiration and noticed two things; the logo moves around and 2. there is a distinctive sound played over the audio. So, once the image was imported in we added a movement so that the image is still then slowly zooms in. The audio was quite a challenge as we had to go onto youtube find the audio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1OAcAl-DMo) then we used this website to convert it to an mp3 format, which then was imported to iMovie and dragged underneath the shot of the film 4 logo. Me and my partner were satisfied, so we uploaded the draft onto youtube, where it was then watched by our peers and teacher for critical feedback. Below are the comments we received:
Lesson 4: Me and my partner could not edit due to only getting feedback, therefore, knowing this, my partner and I, made a list of the shots we need to re-shot and what we were changing it to - doing this meant that it kept us on track and was like a check list, which helped keep us organised. Lastly, we booked out the required equipment, so that we could film over the Easter break.
Lesson 1: Today me and my partners aim was to look through our rough final edit of the opening sequence and see if we could make any more further changes. There were many alterations we made in our sequence. Our aim was to have a smash mouth opening and me and my partner realised that the establishing shot which is the first shot you see) was too long and killed the atmosphere of tension and fast action we wanted to create, therefore we moved the shot just before the shot of Leah walking out the flats, so the audience get a quick view of the area she lives in, in order to emphasise the theme of poverty and escape. Moreover, we shortened the second shot of her opening the door and rushing in, for the same reason ( it dragged on, therefore loosing the quality of a smash mouth opening), so we cut out the part where she is attempting to open the door, instead it jumps straight into the action of her partly already through the door coming into the flat and then bangs the door loudly. We made this change as we wanted it to be quick and raise enigma codes within the audience like ' why is she in such a rush?' 'who is she?'.
Lesson 3: Today is the deadline for the draft of our opening sequence! Me and my partner quickly uploaded the Film 4 logo into the beginning of our sequence since the brief states we are making a film for them. We then watched Film 4 films for inspiration and noticed two things; the logo moves around and 2. there is a distinctive sound played over the audio. So, once the image was imported in we added a movement so that the image is still then slowly zooms in. The audio was quite a challenge as we had to go onto youtube find the audio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1OAcAl-DMo) then we used this website to convert it to an mp3 format, which then was imported to iMovie and dragged underneath the shot of the film 4 logo. Me and my partner were satisfied, so we uploaded the draft onto youtube, where it was then watched by our peers and teacher for critical feedback. Below are the comments we received:
Lesson 4: Me and my partner could not edit due to only getting feedback, therefore, knowing this, my partner and I, made a list of the shots we need to re-shot and what we were changing it to - doing this meant that it kept us on track and was like a check list, which helped keep us organised. Lastly, we booked out the required equipment, so that we could film over the Easter break.
Project Log - Week 8b
Lesson 1: This lesson me and my partner, used this time to get some graphics done. We focused on finishing off cast and crew credits on Live Type.
Lesson 2: Me and my partner filmed the rest of our opening sequence ( shots 8a, 8b, 18-28), because the weather was changing during the weekend and for continuity reasons could not film. Instead we quickly filmed from break to lunch time, as well as using the media lesson time which was inbetween. We finished filming everything!
Lesson 3: Today my partner and i uploaded all the footage, while it was importing, we completed all our graphics of our production companies, except the one credit (our production company) 'Milk Films Production'. Once the footage was off the memory card and onto iMovie, we started to watch all our clips and decided which shots we would use, at the same time we were discussing whether the shot was framed correctly, if the camera language was good, if we had a good range of shots and lastly what the shots itself connoted and what we wanted to portray to the audience, as we wanted each shot to have a deep meaning. Once we had our chosen shots, we put them in order of which they were to be seen and to guide us we used the shooting script.
Lesson 4: This lesson consisted of starting with the actual editing. Me and my partner, started to look at each shot and cut them to what we thought was relevant in terms of what is shown and how long it lasts on the screen, since every shot had to have a meaning that would engage the audience and raise enigma codes, as well as setting up themes etc. The full length of the opening sequence was around 5 mins, but quickly we got it down to 2 mins exactly, which reaches the expectations of the brief. We then watched our sequence back and made further changes, the biggest of changes was actually taking out shots 24-28 as even though it sounded like a good idea on paper, visually the shots we felt gave a bit away of our narrative but instead we wanted to leave the audience with questions. Moreover, we also felt it just dragged on and bought no relevance to the themes we wanted to set up etc.
What have been the key issues for your production and post-production this week?
One key issue in production stage was just trying to get the filming done, so we had plenty of time to edit before the draft deadline. So due to continuity reasons in the past we could not film on the weekend like we planned, and our the actress that plays Leah does not go to our school, therefore we had to find a time that meant we were all available at the same time. This was difficult as the only day she is free is Wednesdays during school time and this obviously clashes with me and my partner as we go to full time school.
There were not any issues in post production, everything went smoothly and we did not need to re shoot anything as we made sure in the production stage that we had a variety of shots, for instance, we shot one piece of action from different angles and shot types, so that we did not have the issue of continuity just in case we need to re shoot the shot. This technique of ours came in handy because when we visually saw the same action but filmed different, in most cases they looked better then what we said we would use in our shooting script, for example in our shooting script we specifically stated that we would use the movement of a pan for the establishing shot of the flats. However, when filming we did the establishing shot with the pan and then an establishing shot static. So when the sequence was roughly put together, it came to our attention that it just did not look right as a pan, since we were trying to achieve a smash mouth opening and the pan was restricting the technique we wanted to portray, therefore we replaced it with the static shot and reduced the duration, as well as placing the establishing shot before shot 18 ( see shooting script - http://kalkidanbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/shooting-script.html) as well felt it had more meaning, as it portrayed the theme of poverty and shows the audience what Leah is striving to escape from. Making this change meant it lived up to the expectations of a smash mouth opening, as the narrative jumps straight into the action, grabs the audiences attention, raises enigma codes like who is she? why is she packing? and this is what me and my partner wanted to achieve.
What decisions did you make about the issues and why?
The key issue in the production stage was resolved as me and my partner realised out media lesson was positioned between break and lunch, therefore meaning we could film from 11:40 to 2:00 and also Amber Quadling who plays Leah was available at that time. We presented out thoughts to our media teacher and he gave us the permission to shoot the rest of our remaining shots.
Lesson 2: Me and my partner filmed the rest of our opening sequence ( shots 8a, 8b, 18-28), because the weather was changing during the weekend and for continuity reasons could not film. Instead we quickly filmed from break to lunch time, as well as using the media lesson time which was inbetween. We finished filming everything!
Lesson 3: Today my partner and i uploaded all the footage, while it was importing, we completed all our graphics of our production companies, except the one credit (our production company) 'Milk Films Production'. Once the footage was off the memory card and onto iMovie, we started to watch all our clips and decided which shots we would use, at the same time we were discussing whether the shot was framed correctly, if the camera language was good, if we had a good range of shots and lastly what the shots itself connoted and what we wanted to portray to the audience, as we wanted each shot to have a deep meaning. Once we had our chosen shots, we put them in order of which they were to be seen and to guide us we used the shooting script.
Lesson 4: This lesson consisted of starting with the actual editing. Me and my partner, started to look at each shot and cut them to what we thought was relevant in terms of what is shown and how long it lasts on the screen, since every shot had to have a meaning that would engage the audience and raise enigma codes, as well as setting up themes etc. The full length of the opening sequence was around 5 mins, but quickly we got it down to 2 mins exactly, which reaches the expectations of the brief. We then watched our sequence back and made further changes, the biggest of changes was actually taking out shots 24-28 as even though it sounded like a good idea on paper, visually the shots we felt gave a bit away of our narrative but instead we wanted to leave the audience with questions. Moreover, we also felt it just dragged on and bought no relevance to the themes we wanted to set up etc.
What have been the key issues for your production and post-production this week?
One key issue in production stage was just trying to get the filming done, so we had plenty of time to edit before the draft deadline. So due to continuity reasons in the past we could not film on the weekend like we planned, and our the actress that plays Leah does not go to our school, therefore we had to find a time that meant we were all available at the same time. This was difficult as the only day she is free is Wednesdays during school time and this obviously clashes with me and my partner as we go to full time school.
There were not any issues in post production, everything went smoothly and we did not need to re shoot anything as we made sure in the production stage that we had a variety of shots, for instance, we shot one piece of action from different angles and shot types, so that we did not have the issue of continuity just in case we need to re shoot the shot. This technique of ours came in handy because when we visually saw the same action but filmed different, in most cases they looked better then what we said we would use in our shooting script, for example in our shooting script we specifically stated that we would use the movement of a pan for the establishing shot of the flats. However, when filming we did the establishing shot with the pan and then an establishing shot static. So when the sequence was roughly put together, it came to our attention that it just did not look right as a pan, since we were trying to achieve a smash mouth opening and the pan was restricting the technique we wanted to portray, therefore we replaced it with the static shot and reduced the duration, as well as placing the establishing shot before shot 18 ( see shooting script - http://kalkidanbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/shooting-script.html) as well felt it had more meaning, as it portrayed the theme of poverty and shows the audience what Leah is striving to escape from. Making this change meant it lived up to the expectations of a smash mouth opening, as the narrative jumps straight into the action, grabs the audiences attention, raises enigma codes like who is she? why is she packing? and this is what me and my partner wanted to achieve.
What decisions did you make about the issues and why?
The key issue in the production stage was resolved as me and my partner realised out media lesson was positioned between break and lunch, therefore meaning we could film from 11:40 to 2:00 and also Amber Quadling who plays Leah was available at that time. We presented out thoughts to our media teacher and he gave us the permission to shoot the rest of our remaining shots.
Monday, 15 April 2013
Project Log - Easter break - Week 7&8a
So me and my partner planned to make improvements on our draft sequence by re shooting a couple of shots. However it seems Amber Quadling who plays Leah, is not available for the whole of the Easter holidays and will not be back until monday the 15th of April at around 6pm. This a big set back as the deadline is on the same week - wednesday 17th of April. This issue will be resolved by finish filming on the Tuesday (for definite) and then giving us only two days to edit. Me and my partner will sacrifice every spare time we have including frees and lunch times, as well as after school to get this opening sequence done to a high standard and given in on time.
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