Timelapse

In a practical task in which the whole class to part in there own individual film, Dan, Dave and I all decided on our task. We would be trying an effect dave had found in a previous film we watched (Down on my blog). Getting the actuall time lapse was easy as all we had to do was leave the camera recording the sky for an hour or so and speed up the playtime on Serif to give the sped up time lapse effect. To get the real time part was also easy to capture, but a lot harder to edit. We just recorded dave for a few minutes. Dan used a composition technique of using the natural line of the wall in the shot to use as a cropping point, so I could set the sped up clip as a video track, and put the real time clip as an over lay track and crop it at the point of the wall; therefore giving the effect of a timelapse background and a real time foreground. This was over third attempt of this and finalised.

 

This effect looks very professional and different. It gives the impression of time flying by, with a surreal feeling.

Foley Sound - Realism

For our main task this year we have decided to improve the sound by bringing in new methods and equipment to give the viewer the full experience. Like last year we will be using foley sound to give our production the edge with the match-on-action shots, however as the brief this year is allowing us to use copyrighted music we will really take advantange of this new found freedom and create a better more urban feel on the whole film.

Another difference about our production this year is the introduction of dialogue. There will be scenes where the characters are having a conversation and to make this really effective we are investing in a shotgun microphone to pick up the dialogue professionally. Shotgun microphone can make the difference of making short film amateur, to professional because simply recording the dialogue straight from the camera means that it will not sound good and background noise will be picked up as well. Also it will make doing foley sound a waste because having good foley sound and poor dialogue will be really noticeable to whoever watching it.


We will also be using sound editing techniques to make the viewer seem like they are actually there. For example I have taken a screen shot from our first scene where I am outside, previously in the scene a song is playing inside the house so when I go outside Dan has edited it so it for what it would sound like if you were outside where the character is to really add to the realism, this puts a whole new side of editing for this production.


We are really taking advantage of being able to use copyrighted music this year, we have chosen artists such as Cypress Hill, The XX, and Subscape. as we felt there styles really suit what we are doing well.

We have chosen these artists because they are popular within the type of audience that our short film will be aimed at. They seem to fit with the film really well with what we have done so far. I have put a link below the one of the songs we are using so you can get a feel for the atmosphere.

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

Research into Similar Products - London Heat

For our research, Dave decided to analyse 'London Heat'. To get a better understanding of films and shows that are a similar genre and theme to the one that we plan to make, we began watching some clips and analysing techniques that we think are effective and relavent to our film. We have also been watching out for typical conventions. Here is a link to SB.TV's short film, London Heat

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDmcOJUejE8

London Heat is about Malcolm, "a street smart kid with lots of ambition. His biggest goal is Jasmine, the girl literally next door, but when it's evident that her loyalties are split between him and the 'Man', the heat begins to burn in the London estate. What unfolds are a series of events that changes the average perception of young urban life", a bit like what we are trying to portray in our short film.


I really like the first few establishing shots shown on the left. They are very still and quiet and set the feeling for the estate it is set on. The tall metal fence gives a representation of being 'trapped. Maybe not physically but maybe trapped in a cycle of crime or other struggles a youth might face in an urban area. This is enhanced by the shot of the security camera which suggests an always over looking power that the people on the estate cant escape, adding to the trapped feeling. The stillness and calmness is contrasted with the diegetic sound of the radio talking about the London riots, where the audience would picture carnage. I would like to incorporate these still opening shots into our production as it gives a sense of calm before the storm or could be interpreted deeper to suggest death or struggles of youth culture.

Another technique that I thought was effective was the use of blur on the character Malcolm seen at 15:11 on the video. This give a surreal atmosphere to the scene as it blurs in and out of focus before focusing in on the character. I think this is effective because it is a good transition into the next scene

Production Calander

This is proof of our production calender...

 

 

 

 This is the order in which we will be following so that we are able to keep of production on schedule and complete it on time.

Storyboarding

We have reached the stage in our production where we have started to storyboard our film. We have finished the first scene and are now starting on the rest of our production. In the first scene involves the drug dealer being killed by the hitman, we have used lots of quick cut shots to build tension and give it a more action like feel. We also used more dynamic camera techniques to add effect such as, silhouettes, close ups, tracking and panning. We also used camera movement to build pace in-between shots. We hope to think that we have a wide variety of shots that will keep the first scene interesting, different and dynamic. A couple of improvements we could make to our storyboard is to add more detail in the pictures to give a better understanding of the shot because at the moment they are very basic and would be hard to interpret by anyone who wasn't there when we were initially planning and drawing it up. Another improvement would be to add the duration of the shot to give us a better understanding of timing throughout our short film so we can manage it. Below are some photos of our storyboard for the first scene.

Here are some photos of our first scene to give you and idea of how we started..

     

Target Audience

Dan, Dave and I discussed our target audience. Who we were aiming our film at and who we wanted to relate to it, we decided our genre already so with it being an urban drama, we decided that we would have a bigger hit with a younger age group. We chose to have our age range to be 15 - 25 years old. After researching similar products, we also decided on the colour treatment of our film and some crucial story line events. Viewing other similar products really gave us an edge and a better understanding on what we were going to achieve.

Production Pitch

Production Pitch.pptx

Film Language Techniques - Time Lapse

While researching other A2 students media projects to compare to ours, Dave came across a short film called 'The Waters Echo' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PS1ET43kF0). There were a few things I really liked about this film but the main thing was a clever camera technique where the film went in to a time lapse of cars on the motorway but the characters stayed in real time (at 6:28). I think this technique looks really professional and gives this short film a surreal feeling. Another reason why this is effective is because it makes the characters seem isolated from the real world, or can be open to other interpretation.

The way this is achieved is by setting the camera up on a tripod and filming for a few hours. Then film the same shot with the characters standing there. When it comes to editing, the first clip is sped up and the right hand side of the shot is cut out and replaced by the real time shot with the characters which is lined up to match the time lapse shot. Giving the effect that time is going by quickly while the characters stay the same.

I couldn't think of another specific film which uses this technique although I have seen it used in films before. However I found another advanced example of this effective technique. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsXP4OtMnN8)

I also found some normal time lapses which I really liked because they can be used to show processes that would be subtle to the human eye, that when sped up, become very pronounced. For example, the sun rising/setting, cloudscapes, plants growing or a busy city etc. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXOXns_gx8k) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCGuSqBjhfE)

"The Bridge" Documentry

In class we watched another documentary called 'The Bridge'; filmed in 2004 by Eric Steel. It shows one years constant filming along the Golden Gate Bridge and the 23 jumps and several suicide attempts that happened over the course of the filming.

There are many controversial issues that surround this documentary, the main being the sensitive and strong content that you see and learn. We thought of some questions in the lesson based around the treatment of the documentary rather than the content. We were asked by Mr. Buckmaster to respond to these issues.

Do we have the right to see this?

I believe that we as an audience do have a right to see this. I do not think that this documentry is in anyway promoting suicide but in some ways sharing the need that some people need. Compared to "The Boy Who's Skin Fell Off" this documentary differs from it being based more around the fascination of suicides linked to the Golden Gate Bridge rather than spreading the awareness of the issue and promoting a way of helping people. I also think it helped to express the importance of not ignoring symptoms and therefore I believe it did promote some parts in a good way. Also this doumentry gives a very strong message to people who are feeling suicidal as we hear Ken Baldwins story in the documentary and his attempt of suicide that he immediately regretted. I think this gives a positive message and a feeling of hope.

Why has the documentary got an 18 rating?

This documentary has a high rating, this is due to its taste and decency. I found the documentary quite hard to watch due to it actually showing people committing suicide. Along with verbal accounts and photo graphs from people who have seen people jumping off the bridge or climbing over the railing. This can clearly be disturbing for many viewers and therefore a high rating.

In conclusion, this documentry was purely an insightful and cencear. I believe that it was very moving and in some ways helpful to some viewers feeling the same, i would advise people to watch this. 

The Boy Who's Skin Fell Off Documentary

In today's class, we watched a documentary called 'The Boy Who's Skin Fell Off''. This is a journey through the 36 year old, Jonny Kennedy, on his day to day struggles though life as he suffers from a rare genetic skin disorder called 'Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB)'. This is a very moving documentary giving out many different emotions, it also presents many different issues that people may go through in life, such as:

- Death

- Suffering

- Family
- Religion and Faith
- Disability
- Abortion
- Charity
- Independence
- Sexuality and Relationships

When the class were presented this, many views and opinions were put across especially about it being shown on television. About how it wasn't appropriate to be showing someone in so much pain and suffering. From watching this, points where put across to debate over, such as..

Do we have the right to see this?
The class and i discussed whether we had a right to watch this documentary, because of the very personal information that was displayed throughout it. In my opinion, i think that we do have a right to see it as jonny seemed very comfortable about sharing his life long problem and feelings to the thousands of people who would what this, and i think it is also a really effective way of publicising the terrible problem and also informing people of his charity. But on the other hand there re some subjects in the documentary that i think should not be show, for example, abortion was one of the most referred too in the documentary that was frequently asked to jonny's mother, this issue i think should not be put on one person and be expected to answer to because its a horrible thing to think about, especially when the question was asked jonny was in the same room. This is a very personal thing to share on TV and I think this was too much to be sharing with a large audience about a sensitive issue. 

Was it a valid documentary?
I think it was a very valid documentary as it helps the viewers fully understand Jonny, his condition and his life living with the condition. It also spreads awareness of the condition and promotes the charity which is very helpful for people who suffer with EB like Jonny. This documentary allows the audience to connect with Johnny and I feel that many people will both take something from it and give something back. I personally have learnt a lot about a rare condition that I previously knew nothing about and have acknowledged a worthy charity through this documentary.

Did they take advantage of the situation?

I definitely think they took advantage of the situation because it is such a rare condition that it would be hard to find someone willing to help to make a documentary and that has put so much time and effort into helping others who have the condition. However, I don't think that taking advantage of it was all bad; through the documentary Johnny not only got to educate and inspire millions with his story but he managed to raise thousands of pounds and promote his charity. But I think the morals and ethics behind using this story was for a very good cause by allowing Johnny Kennedy by giving him the opportunity to share his story with the world which i think is very brave and inspiring.

A2 Briefs

In our lesson this week, we were told what the briefs were for the A2 portfolio. There was a lot more choice for this years brief than there was for A2 so we would have to think about each brief to make sure we had picked the right one that suited us. 

This is the A2 brief..

Media Studies - A2 Course Layout

Although many sounded interesting, we decided we were going to want to do a video production as we thought this was our strongest point.  

From the video briefs we picked out some potential breifes we would like to do. This included:
- A short film
- A music video
- A teaser trailer 
- A documentary 

After a group discussion, we decided that we wouldn't want to do a teaser trailer as it would be too difficult to do effectively, as we would have to think of a whole plot, think about all important scenes and then shoot them and edit it to still be able to tell the basic story of the film without giving away too much and making it look like a load of random clips. So we decided this was not a brief we were going to do. 

We are still undecided on the exact brief we are going to do so we are going to do some research on documentaries, short films and music videos to gain a wide range of research and information which is useful to look at even if we aren't going to do that certain brief as it still gives us a good understanding of different types and aspects of media, how they are similar and how they are different and things we can incorporate into our piece. 

AS Foundation Portfolio Analysis

On this blog post, I will be analysing my AS foundation portfolio to see how much i have progressed in the last year and my position now to compare at the end of this year. 

I am very happy with the way our final piece turned out as it was exactly what we were aiming for as a group. I think the reason it went so well is because we all had a lot of different ideas to contribute, some which we good and some were bad. The good ones we were able to develop as we thought about it more. Also the way we worked as a team was a really strengthening in the end result.

One thing I am most pleased of is the foley sound. Every single sound in the production from the rustling of bed sheets to the TV in the background was recorded separately and dropped into place on Serif so it was synced and in time. We think the foley give our piece a much more dynamic feeling to it as you can really hear the detail and the sound clips were good quality as they were recorded of a condenser microphone. This helped to give the finished piece a really realistic feeling.

Another thing I am happy about was our use of different camera shots. Throughout planning and shooting, we tried to vary our shots from just standard, stationary medium close ups and tried to implicate some more adventurous, dynamic shots. For example:

- The first shot is a birds eye view shot, looking down on the character, introducing him and setting the scene. 

- The shot at 0:29 were the camera moves out the window, following the characters actions. 

- At 0:42 where he pulls his shoes from underneath the bed and the shot is in the perspective of the shoes. 

- At 1:07 where the camera tracks him through his house without going inside. 

- At 2:20 where the camera pans down diagonally thorough the bush to follow the character.

As well as techniques such as silhouette, point of view shot and dutch angle to create a sense of unease and vulnerability. 

Another thing I am happy with was the editing techniques used. Although we were on Serif, we were able to use a lot of editing effects to give our piece the effect we wanted. For example, the interference seen at 0:22, 2:08 and 2:29 was done by using a filter effect and by adding an mp3 sound effect over the top. We also used techniques such as overlapping shots to get a fading effect (e.g. 2:14 where he disappears across the field)

One thing I would have liked to do differently is to use a proper colour treatment to give it the overall finish it needed as the colours do seem a bit bland. I think the right colour treatment could have given it an eerie, washed away feeling. 

Another thing I think we could have done better is planning, although it turned out alright, our planning was pretty poor and I think in the next year, if we want to improve upon our final piece, we need to plan a lot more efficiently and maybe do a bit more research into similar products and audience. 

Overall, I think I have come quite far since the start of the year, comparing our final piece to our preliminary task, we have improved greatly on our camera techniques, making match on action look realistic, improved continuity and been more abstract and adventurous in the ways we can represent our character and whats going to happen by using a variety of shots. I hope to further improve my understanding, knowledge and techniques in the year to come.