Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Editing
I have finished editing my film opening using Ulead. I chose to use black and white like many of the films I had watched when looking at generic conventions of the genre. I think it works well overall, I am pleased with the finished film, continuity and editing work well. I think it is a believable opening to a feature length film, now need to write up an evaluation.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Film Summary
Summary Idea
Set after a series of terrorist attacks targeting public transport. When searching the debris of a train, footage is found in a destroyed camera, apparently filmed by someone on the train in the moments before bomb exploded onboard. It may hold vital evidence that will help in police investigations into the incident. The film opening shows the footage as two police investigators watch it and begin to analyse the video questioning what it shows in order to find out who was responsible and to prevent similar attacks from happening in the future.
Set after a series of terrorist attacks targeting public transport. When searching the debris of a train, footage is found in a destroyed camera, apparently filmed by someone on the train in the moments before bomb exploded onboard. It may hold vital evidence that will help in police investigations into the incident. The film opening shows the footage as two police investigators watch it and begin to analyse the video questioning what it shows in order to find out who was responsible and to prevent similar attacks from happening in the future.
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Film Synopsis...
After researching the generic conventions of the drama, I can now begin to think abour plot ideas for my film. Before I think about exactly what I am going to film, I need to come up with a vague outline of the full film, to put my opening scene in context.
Film Openings - Generic Conventions...
For the second coursework, I need to film the opening of a film. I have chosen to film the start of an action film and I am researching the genre in order to get an idea of the key conventions and themes that I can use in mine.
I watched the start of a few films from my chosen genre - Casino Royale, Sleuth, Saving Private Ryan and Sin City. I made notes of everything I saw and heard(Mise en scène).
Casino Royale
Unlike the rest of the film, the opening scene is shot in black and white. It is reminiscent of Film Noir, with hard side lighting causing shadows to fall on the characters faces. The characters faces are well lit and the background is very dark. A variety of shots and composition are used, the rule of thirds is used and the 180-degree rule is kept to throughout, each character stays one side of the frame as it cuts between them, though over the shoulder shots are not used. Wide angle close-up shots show characters expressions.
Though the scene is mainly very dark, it cuts to a much lighter scene of action, also shot in black and white. This contrast allows the viewer to differentiate between time frames; it implies that the crosscut is to something that has happened in the past that the characters are remembering.
Sleuth
Sleuth starts with slow classical music, this is used to build suspense and create atmosphere. Very few shots make up the opening scene, the first, shot over the shoulder of a character, is of a monitor showing CCTV of a car pulling up to a house. The next is a symmetrical shot, looking down at the front door from outside (as if from the surveillance camera). Similar aerial shots are used throughout the film, it cuts away from these to more conventional shots to show detail and character responses. Many of the aerial shots make the characters look small. A strong blue filter is used and it almost looks like it is shot in mono colour, the fact that everything is blue makes it feels cold and creates atmosphere.
Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan also uses a jump in time frame. It starts with an elderly man remembering the events of the war, and the film is about what took place. Music is used that is relevant to the scene. Scenes of action are fast paced, short cuts, with handheld camera movement and canted angles. It makes the viewer feel as if they are there, part of the action almost as if what we see is through the eyes of someone there. The lighting is quite dull and natural, a blue/ green filter is used, the colours look dull.
Sin City
Sin City is shot in black, white and red. It is also mostly CGI and a lot of special effects are used. Like Casino Royal’s opening it is very reminiscent of Film Noir. Hard lighting causing shadows to fall on the characters and it is very dark.
It is shot in an artistic way and is aesthetically pleasing, though the shots are fairly conventional. The set design adds to the feel of the film. It is very atmospheric. The opening scene ends with someone being shot, the shot is from a high angle looking down on the subject, making her seem small and powerless. The characters faces are well lit and the background is very dark. The 180-degree rule is used with over the shoulder shots. Jazz music plays in the background.
I watched the start of a few films from my chosen genre - Casino Royale, Sleuth, Saving Private Ryan and Sin City. I made notes of everything I saw and heard(Mise en scène).
Casino Royale
Unlike the rest of the film, the opening scene is shot in black and white. It is reminiscent of Film Noir, with hard side lighting causing shadows to fall on the characters faces. The characters faces are well lit and the background is very dark. A variety of shots and composition are used, the rule of thirds is used and the 180-degree rule is kept to throughout, each character stays one side of the frame as it cuts between them, though over the shoulder shots are not used. Wide angle close-up shots show characters expressions.
Though the scene is mainly very dark, it cuts to a much lighter scene of action, also shot in black and white. This contrast allows the viewer to differentiate between time frames; it implies that the crosscut is to something that has happened in the past that the characters are remembering.
Sleuth
Sleuth starts with slow classical music, this is used to build suspense and create atmosphere. Very few shots make up the opening scene, the first, shot over the shoulder of a character, is of a monitor showing CCTV of a car pulling up to a house. The next is a symmetrical shot, looking down at the front door from outside (as if from the surveillance camera). Similar aerial shots are used throughout the film, it cuts away from these to more conventional shots to show detail and character responses. Many of the aerial shots make the characters look small. A strong blue filter is used and it almost looks like it is shot in mono colour, the fact that everything is blue makes it feels cold and creates atmosphere.
Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan also uses a jump in time frame. It starts with an elderly man remembering the events of the war, and the film is about what took place. Music is used that is relevant to the scene. Scenes of action are fast paced, short cuts, with handheld camera movement and canted angles. It makes the viewer feel as if they are there, part of the action almost as if what we see is through the eyes of someone there. The lighting is quite dull and natural, a blue/ green filter is used, the colours look dull.
Sin City
Sin City is shot in black, white and red. It is also mostly CGI and a lot of special effects are used. Like Casino Royal’s opening it is very reminiscent of Film Noir. Hard lighting causing shadows to fall on the characters and it is very dark.
It is shot in an artistic way and is aesthetically pleasing, though the shots are fairly conventional. The set design adds to the feel of the film. It is very atmospheric. The opening scene ends with someone being shot, the shot is from a high angle looking down on the subject, making her seem small and powerless. The characters faces are well lit and the background is very dark. The 180-degree rule is used with over the shoulder shots. Jazz music plays in the background.
Friday, 21 November 2008
Evaluation...
Preliminary Exercise
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match an action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
I created a storyboard of the film, thinking about the best angles to film from. I chose to start the film with a simple shot from the other end of the corridor, establishing the scene. For the part where the character walks down a corridor, I chose to use handheld camera and follow the characters feet as he walks towards the room. I made sure I followed the 180-degree rule for the lines of dialogue and used a tripod for these still shots.
When editing I made sure there were no continuity errors. I made sure it flowed well when piecing the shots together with no pauses between dialogue. I kept the editing simple with simple cuts between shots. I used a fade from black at the start and a fade to black at the end. I am pleased with the editing, the film is effective and simple.
I feel I could improve the film with more varied and imaginative camera angles, such as shots from high and low angles. I would also have liked to use some close up shots to show characters reactions to what others are saying.
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match an action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
I created a storyboard of the film, thinking about the best angles to film from. I chose to start the film with a simple shot from the other end of the corridor, establishing the scene. For the part where the character walks down a corridor, I chose to use handheld camera and follow the characters feet as he walks towards the room. I made sure I followed the 180-degree rule for the lines of dialogue and used a tripod for these still shots.
When editing I made sure there were no continuity errors. I made sure it flowed well when piecing the shots together with no pauses between dialogue. I kept the editing simple with simple cuts between shots. I used a fade from black at the start and a fade to black at the end. I am pleased with the editing, the film is effective and simple.
I feel I could improve the film with more varied and imaginative camera angles, such as shots from high and low angles. I would also have liked to use some close up shots to show characters reactions to what others are saying.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Editing...
We used Ulead Video Studio to edit the film. We made sure the shots flowed and we had accurate continuity. We realised during editing that the door had been left open when he had walked into the room but was shut later in the scene, to solve the problem we recorded the sound of the door closing and edited it into the video. The video starts with a fade from black, we kept the cuts simple from one shot to another with a fade to black as the end. We experimented with dissolving between shots but chose not to use this in the final film. The end result was just under a minute long.
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