Monday, 20 December 2010

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Things which i have learnt throughout my project is how to edit using final cut pro, the camera shots and angles i need to use to create an effective shot. I also found out how to use After Effects and Garage Band. 
This shows a printscreen of the software we used, this shows the open application Final Cut Express.From this software I learnt how to cut scene together and make them look professional by using fade in or out.



 We used A HD video camera to shoot our thriller opening, because the video has better quality than a normal video camera. I learnt how to 'rig' and 'de-rig' a camera from the tripod. some techniques i learnt whilst shooting was how to zoom in and out.










We had to use blogger to post our work. I learnt how to improve and edit stuff on my blogger.







Camera Shot List


Extreme Long Shot

This can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting, establishing shot. Normally shows an exterior eg the outside of a building, or a landscape, and is often used to show scenes of thrilling action eg in a war film or disaster movie. There will be very little detail visible in the shot, it's meant to give a general impression rather than specific information.

 Long Shot

This is the most difficult to categorise precisely, but is generally one which shows the image as approximately "life" size ie corresponding to the real distance between the audience and the screen in a cinema (the figure of a man would appear as six feet tall). This category includes the full shot showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on characters, plenty of background detail still emerges.



Medium Shot

Contains a figure from the knees/waist up and is normally used for dialogue scenes, or to show some detail of action. Variations on this include the two shot (containing two figures from the waist up) and the three shot (contains 3 figures...). Any more than three figures and the shot tends to become a long shot. Background detail is minimal, probably because location has been established earlier in the scene - the audience already know where they are and now want to focus on dialogue and character interation. Another variation in this category is the over-the-shoulder-shot, which positions the camera behind one figure, revealing the other figure, and part of the first figure's back, head and shoulder.


Close-Up

This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detail of mise en scène. Everything else is just a blur in the background. This shot magnifies the object and shows the importance of things, be it words written on paper, or the expression on someone's face. The close-up takes us into the mind of a character. Usually a close up of a face is a very intimate shot. A film-maker may use this to make us feel extra comfortable or extremely uncomfortable about a character, and usually uses a zoom lens in order to get the required framing.

Extreme Close-Up

As its name states, an extreme version of the close up, generally magnifying beyond what the human eye would experience in reality. An extreme close-up of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes, with no background detail at all. This is a very artificial shot, which can be used for dramatic effect. The tight focus required means that extra care must be taken when setting up and lighting the shot - the slightest camera shake or error in focal length is very noticeable.

Evaluation Q2

Presentation 1

Evaluation Q4

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOlpOPU0tG_sisjQAGcPP9G0OAY0yXVXIwTB1xin1AMEgr2RPR0To8WxQ6aMHwxchdREdPREscolTdQxTRFrc3ESQCguHt7z6LBINgQ-0zhbuYx8raZ3SZ4tFzw2Po_YdBip3lR3JA6Eo/s1600/dami.jpg


This is Damilola Otukoya, he is 16 years old and lives in Croydon. He is from Nigeria from Lagos. He dresses smart and casual. He likes playing video games and playing football. He shops in JD and M&S.
He watches Horror, Comedy and Thriller films and enjoys the scare of horror and thriller films. His favourite Thriller film is God Father.
He watches T.V programmes such as misfits, he enjoys it because its funny and interesting and has some thriller conventions.
I think my  film will appeal to Damilola, because my movie conventions a lot of the thriller genre and also is interesting, because contains some aspects of mystery. My film is targeted at teenagers around the age of 16-20, who enjoy thriller movies and some mystery.


Evaluation Q1


1) Image 1 shows the title of the film opening. I chose the font colour to be red, because red signifies evil, death and anger. I made the background black, because it fits the conventions of thriller genre. we wanted the title to have a potent meaning so we chose the colour red and made it bold.

2) Image 2 shows the setting and plot of where we had filmed, we chose this location because we used a car (without permission) which we had to use to shoot one of our scenes. I think if i was to re-shoot i would have chosen a woodland, cemetery area.

3) Image 3 shows the costumes we used. in this image you can see a person with a balaclava on, this was used to add a convention of the thriller genre.

4) Image 4 shows the editing software we used, we used final cut pro to cut and edit our thriller opening. Examples og editing we used was jump cuts, fade in and fade out.

5) Image 5 shows the effect software we used, we used after effect to make our tiles and credits. we used after effect, because it is a professional effect software. We were not fully satisfied with the credits, because we didn't have enough time to make better credits.

6) Image 6 shows how the thriller sets up. I chose to add a 20th century production logo, to make my opening look more professional.

7) Image 7 shows character prop and costumes. this shows the main character holding a gun and wearing thug clothing's which represent him as a thug and the gun also is a convention of the thriller genre. 

8) Image 8 shows the production logo. I put this in the opening, because I had done a lot of thriller opening research and found out that they usually have the production logo in the beginning.

Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Balaclava: We wanted to use a balaclava to conceal and hide the identity of the victim from the viewers, it helps add to the mysterious nature of the film. The fact that the victim is wearing a balaclava could mean that all is not what it seem (i.e. the victim is actually the bad guy).








Gun: This prop will be used to empower the enemy and make the 'bad guy' seem much more efective. The gun will be key in the perpatrator of the crime taking charge of the situation in which he kills the victim

2011 
Mercedes-Benz C300 sport sedanMercedes Benz C-Class: The car will be an integral part of the storyline. This is where the murder will take place, and where the victim will be thrown into the boot.





Cigarette: The murderer will be smoking a cigarette after he commits the atrocity that has been aforementioned.

Monday, 13 December 2010

Student Film Research



This film opening was fairly good, some of the strenghts were that they had an unknown character who was shown at random scenes, this creates suspence. The video includes some of the codes and conventions of the thriller genre. I think the weaknesses of the film was when the voice over started talking, it was feminine and didnt match the scene. I would have recommended that they used a deep male voice-over and the titles should have been more scarier.

Preliminary task

Continutiy editing- the techniques used to illiminate interruptions in the story-line of a film. Cuts made during the editing process are masked or covered-up with smooth tranisitions and direct overlaps so that motion, action, dialogue and locations appear realistically with little or no psychological effect.

The three rules- 180 degree rule, match on action, shot/reverse shot.

For our preliminary task we had to make a short interview with two or more characters, and we had to use the three rules listed above.

180 degree rule- The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters  in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. If you crossed the line it make the footage less proffesional and will confuse the audiences, so it is necessary that you think about every shot you are taking.

Match on Action shot- A match on action shot is when some action occurring before the temporally questionable cut is picked up where the cut left it by the shot immediately following. For example a person walking through a door. the first shot is a long shot of the subject walking throught the door, and using match on action shot, we place the camera insde that room to show the subject walking into the room through the door. 
Shot Reverse Shot- is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character , and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other


Animatic

Practical work

I have already shot my thriller scene, but i haven't made all the final editings. I need to make the screen titles on after effects hich i dont have access to home, i also need to edit the titles onto the opening scene using Final Cut Pro. So far i am not working to my full potenitial and hope to start working harder and finshing all work. It was also a problem to get everything orginised on time because my project partener was very lazy and didnt turn up to the video shoot.

Here are the actors- photos




Feedback

I got alot of feedbacks from my freinds after they had seen the rough opening sequence, one commented saying 'i like the idea of a midnight kidnapping, this creates suspence and fear to the audience'. we recieved some positive and some negative comments for example one of the viewers wrote. 'i like it, but u could hav boosted it up by using blood or some horror conventions'. From these comments i have realised that i could have made my film opening more beta if i prepared more for it, but overall i think it went well.

Thriller music