Main Task Post 1 - Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Our main task for our year 12 AS coursework is to produce an introduction to 1 short film (a maximum of 2 minutes long). All the footage, pictures etc... must be original and created by us, not download from websites; however we are allowed to use copyright - free music.

I will be working in the same group I did for the preliminary task which is myself, John Brooks and Hugo king-Irwin. This is because we worked well together and got on. I think we produced a good opening sequence with the time we have.

Before we start making our film, we watched some opening sequences from well known films such as “Goldfinger” as well as short British films funded by the UK Film Council. One short film that we analsed was titled 'Whore'.  The film opens with a male and a female sitting on a bench while the credits appear, the opening is simple but effective. There is no non-diagetic sound/soundtrack and little conversation, this is because the film focuses on the camera techniques and editing which it does very well because the shots do not last very long, each shot lasts about 3-4 seconds keeping the film at a relatively fast pace. The opening introduces us to the characters with effective master shots and establishing the setting, a school. The colours in the film are brighter but still have been manipulated a little when it has been edited. I like this opening scene it creates mood and tension and has simple opening credits showing the title and the production company. 

Goldfinger has a much more complex opening and many credits, a convention of the bigger budget movie. It is constructed of a montage were silhouettes of woman are dancing around with the main characters overlaid on top of them. On top of the montage is a 'big band' theme song which is used in a lot of James Bond films. This iconic music makes it obvious that you are watching a James Bond film. As the title of the film is called Goldfinger, the whole montage is designed with a gold colour scheme, this contrasts with the titles. There is also a few other silhouettes of all the conventions in the film such as guns, cars and explosions, all of which are revealed in the same way as the main part of the montage by overlaying them. At the end of the montage, there is a establishing shot of Miami that introduces the viewers into the opening of the film and the exotic location.

post production

Post production report

After we had finished recording the footage, we had to upload it to Adobe Premier for editing. We plugged in the camera and it started to capture the footage onto the software. Once that had finished, we watched all the footage and began to remove the un-needed footage. We felt that we didn’t need a logging rush as there were only 5 shots with not a lot of footage so we just got on with it and started to edit the footage.

We put all our footage into a time line and used the cut tool to separate the different scenes. Below is the time line. You can see all the footage with a all the necessary cuts in the correct places.

The next stage was to add some transitions. We did not add many as we wanted the footage to flow relatively quickly and most film texts we have watched use straight cuts. We added a cross dissolve when both actors began to sit down so to separate the entering the room shot with all the dialogue, I think this worked well. The rest of the footage we kept with straight cuts to keep the footage flowing at a quick tempo.

There were no unwanted diagetic noises which meant there was no need to re film footage. For some of the strait cuts, we adjusted the sound levels so they faded in and out which helped show an end to that shot, it was anything drastic, the fades only lasted about half a second.

We thought we would add some music to the intro scene to add a little bit of humor to it. We thought that the opening shot was a little dull (person walking into a room with camera panning). We cut the music as the actor knocked on the door so you could hear the actor inside the room say “come in.” we added a countdown some bars and tone to make to film look more professional. Finally, we watched it back to check for any mistakes we might have missed and rendered it.

script

Preliminary Script

It’s an interview regarding an upcoming film called “Vanilla”.

The actor being interviewed is played by me and the interviewee is played by John whilst Connor works the camera.

I start the scene by me walking in a through the door and greeting John with a handshake. After this we then sit down and start the interview.

Scene 1

RON GILBERT

Very nice to meet you Mr Jeremy, please take a seat.

HARRISON JEREMY

Thank you, it’s great to be here Ron.

RON GILBERT

Thanks. Now I hear that you have the starring role in a new film coming out, could you tell us about it?

HARRISON JEREMY

Ah, well the film is called Vanilla and it’s a rom-com about two people who meet in an ice cream parlour.

RON GILBERT

Sounds great. Now there have been some rumours going around that you and Paris Hilton has gotten together during the filming, is this true?

HARRISON JEREMY

I would rather not discuss it thanks.

RON GILBERT

Come on, not even the slightest?

HARRISON JEREMY

No not even the slightest!

Script Annotations:

Hugo: For the opening of our piece we will shoot both sides of the door in order to get the best sound and match on action. This is so that our piece flows a lot smoother and isn't jumpy.

Connor: For the over the shoulder shot reverse shot we will have to keep the camera in the same place on either side. This is in order to keep to not only the rule of continuity but also the 180° rule. This is so that its not too jerky for the viewer.

John:  We used a  low camera angle on our second shot of Harrison, it showed him as a character with status although during the interview it is the interviewer Ron Gilbert is the one with the power where he asks personal an pressuring questions. 

shot list and story board

Shot List:

Jump Cuts, Over-The-Shoulder Shots, Cutaways and Point Of View Shots

Jump Cuts: A jump cut is a transition between two shots which appears to "jump" due to the way the shots are framed in relation to each other. Jump cuts are usually caused by framing which is quite similar.

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/transition/jump-cut.html



Example of a jump cut.





Over-The-Shoulder Shot:
In film or video, an over the shoulder shot (also over shoulder, OS, OTS, or third-person shot) is a shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person. The back of the shoulder and head of this person is used to frame the image of whatever (or whomever) the camera is pointing toward. This type of shot is very common when two characters are having a discussion and will usually follow an establishing shot which helps the audience place the characters in their setting. It is an example of a camera angle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_shoulder_shot

Emaple of an over the shoulder shot

Point of View (POV):
A point of view shot (also known as POV shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction (see shot reverse shot). The technique of POV is one of the foundations of film editing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_view_shot


Example of a POV shot

Continuity and Shot Reverse Shot

Continuity

An important part of filming our short film in continuity. Continuity is when you switch from shot to shot without changing the environment etc…

http://www.moviemistakes.com/picture88430

If such a mistake is made when filming, it can make the film look weird and poorly made, you can only fix such a mistake by re-filming the whole scene again.

Shot reverse shot

Shot reverse shot is a technique mainly used in a dialogue scene, but continuity is very important in these types of shots.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3hjCtssO_w_Rl4ur2wqdyZNOQb8erkS0D1KEMhxoHVVOF0V8gK8QkGovfzE8NiLD7o-K937ZJSh2cEgy6nSCCy2MH17gWpfGnqA9CnAtv4c9lw45_xekHZhKnWeTuEUUTPUsveKAmMcpD/s1600/shot+reverse+shot.jpg

if something changes when flipping from shoulder to shoulder, it can make the whole scene look really bad and unnatural.

This type of shot will be very useful in our short film as ¾ of the film is two people talking.

this is our risk assesment, it covers some obvious risks that could happen while filming, it also covers some not well known risks

Risk assessment 

Hazard	Risk	Action
Chair legs	Tripping over and causing injury	Push chairs under table
lighting	Lights may make room hot and uncomfortable, touching lights is very dangerous	Wear appropriate clothing, if the room has a lot of natural light, then turn artificial lights off, no
Smocking (probable no smocking)	Fire hazard	No smoking
Noise	People etc... May disrupted our recording	Film were we wont get disrupted
mirrors	If there are any mirrors, they may fall and cause injury	Carful of mirrors, may need to take them down briefly while recording
Batteries	If kept in a cold environment for to long, they will run out	Make the most of them, bring spares just incase
Steps	Could trip and fall causing injury	Watch your footing, carful were you step, watch for equipment on the floor
Using camera	Carful of environment when using camera	Watch your environment when using camera, mainly if panning

shot sizes in detail

 this shot is called an establishing shot, this type of shot does not need to have people in it, but merely the place were the scene is going to happen, this type of shot can be used in many different ways, it can create happy fillings about a place, (like a beach with the sea) or maybe sad/ scary emotions (a haunted mansion).

This is shot is called a long shot (LS). it is used to show a character while keeping the whole figure in the shot, it also keeps a lot of the surounding environment in the shot as well, which can be used for editing.

A medium long shot (MLS) is basically the same as a long shot, but it shows the person as well as the environment in more detail.

This shot is called a 3/4 shot, again is similar to a MLS but is more close up. this type of shot along with a medium shot are good for such scenes as interviews and news reports.

this is a medium shot (MS). in this shot, you can see a character in a lot more detail, you can also see and text that may be in the background or any features on the character you may not have been able to see from a LS etc....

 this shot is called a medium close up (MCU). this type of shot is to show the key features of the the shot in more detail such as face expressions.

 a close up shot (CUS) is almost exactly the same as a MCU but a bit more zoomed in more on the face of the character which shows faceual expressions in even more detail.

 a extreme close up (ECU) is not very well used but is used purely to show all the features of a person in a high amount of detail. there is no to little room for anything else in the shot (besides the background).

the final shot i will talk about is  over the shoulder shot. it can be used to make characters look as if they are talking to each other. you can switch between both characters shoulders, one after the other to make the shot look more as the characters are talking to each other

Storyboard Drawing, Shot Sizes, Framing and Rule of Thirds

this is my storyboard techniques, when it comes to storyboarding, it is better to use person figures called ergonomes rather than "stick people." by using ergonoms, you can create a picture of much greater detail showing exactly what the person is doing in the shot, is is shown is the sketch i have done to the right.


when it comes to framing, positioning is key, in a scene were you have someone running across the screen for example, it is a lot better to have them position to the right hand side of the camera shot so they have a lot more room to run across the screen (or vis versa if running in the opposite direction.)

in a interview like shot, rather than having the person being interviewed in the centrer of the shot, it is better to have them positioned to the left or right hand side of the shot. by doing this, it allows room for text such as titles or names of the person.



on the right hand side, you can see some shot sizes i have draw, i will go more in-detail what they are used for and what they mean in my next post.

this image shows how the rule of thirds is used in a shot. every shot is brocken up into a invisable 3x3 gid that shows the postion of everything in the shot.

The rule of thirds is a concept in video and film production in which the frame is divided into into nine imaginary sections, as illustrated on the right. This creates reference points which act as guides for framing the image - 


http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/rule-of-thirds.html



http://www.howtophotography.org/the-rule-of-thirds/

what i will be doing

prelimlinary exercise brief: in groups of no more than four. continuity task task involving filming and editing a charecter opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another charecter, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. this task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

welcome

welcome to my blog were i will post all my AS media work that i do here :)