In a previous exercise we used a flip camera to film tension through a variety of angles and to edit the final product. In this exercise we used a canon ds1 camera to build on the first exercise and learn how to change the depth of field using the apture numbers. Shallow focus is achieved with a low f stop number which would only show what is in focus but everything in the background is blurred, whereas a deep focus shot would be used to everything in focus. In this exercise we were also to take picture and a clip using these techniques and syncing them together. The new camera we used is very a sophisticated piece of technology. Using this camera i found difficult, however adjusting the lens for shallow focus and clear focus was one of the skills i learnt to do. Recording a little clip would have worked if i had checked that we had some memory on the memory card. This exercise helped me understand the basics of operating the camera, though a little more practice is needed to create a product.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Technical exercise with a Canon DS1
In a previous exercise we used a flip camera to film tension through a variety of angles and to edit the final product. In this exercise we used a canon ds1 camera to build on the first exercise and learn how to change the depth of field using the apture numbers. Shallow focus is achieved with a low f stop number which would only show what is in focus but everything in the background is blurred, whereas a deep focus shot would be used to everything in focus. In this exercise we were also to take picture and a clip using these techniques and syncing them together. The new camera we used is very a sophisticated piece of technology. Using this camera i found difficult, however adjusting the lens for shallow focus and clear focus was one of the skills i learnt to do. Recording a little clip would have worked if i had checked that we had some memory on the memory card. This exercise helped me understand the basics of operating the camera, though a little more practice is needed to create a product.
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Friday, 4 November 2011
Practice filming session
One of the pro's of doing this exercise is that i can reflect on what went well and what did not. On reflection at looking at my final cut is that it more spoof than scary. Second that using students who study acting would work better.
My groups use of camera angles was probably the most productive and successful part of the production as our we used a collection of over shoulder, mid shot, close ups and long shots.
For lighting we only use natural lighting because of short filming times, which is one thing i will do different on our actual shoot.
The use of sound in this piece is mostly extra cuts brought in.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
This is our first draft of a script, This is a basic out line of dialogue and camera movement.
Monday, 17 October 2011
Filth to ashes- flesh to dust
A contemporary Horror movie released in 2011, in this blog post i am going to deconstruct the trailer.
In the beginning of the trailer their is a sense of equilibrium of two protagonists in a car speaking to one another, the lighting is natural and bright. From the next scene it is clear to audience that they are in the desert a slow pan of a car pulling up sets the scene. Then the lighting dims and slowly the music score is introduced anchoring the fade out to text on screen informing the audience of the equilibrium now being un balanced. The mise en scene now is in an abanded warehouse of some sorts. A contemporary twist on the classic forest horror scene, used to update the genre. The characters are predominantly female dressed in skimpy tops and shorts enphasising their sexuality, the males are in shorts and t-shirts. The lighting is dim and dark as the scenes are of a dark and unsettling nature a series of mid shots and close ups show women tied up screaming and one female holding a gun, who is then has a line which connotes her defiance, however she is punched in the face destroying her false hope. The music score anchors the moving images on screen building up the tension to highlight key bits and suspence. The camera angles and shots are majoritively close ups showing the emotions on the characters faces. Framed in a tracking shot. This use of the camera portrays the females of the piece as weak and scared and unable to be in control a stereotypical portrayl of females in film.Whipe shots to the next scene are used in the beginning and as the pace of the trailer quickens these are changed to fade shots to ensure continuity.
In comparison i am going to deconstruct Tucker and Dale v Evil
This is a Horror spoof and very different to the above horror.
The Establishing shot is a crane shot of a long road inbetween some woods with a car in focus. A fade out takes us to the next shot which is a close up with three characters in focus in the car. The next shot is a subjective shot from those characters as the supposed villains of the piece are seen. The Mise en Scene is set in the woods which a classic setting for a horror movie, the Lighting at the beginning of the trailer is bright and natural establishing the equilibrium. This changes quickly as the disruption sees the protagonists spooked by a couple of locals. As non diagetic sound is introduced the lighting dims and main we see one of the protagonists scream on seeing the locals again. The non diagetic music score increases the tension to a crescendo as the protagonists mistakenly believe one of them is being kidnapped by the locals. The dim lighting anchors. At the end of the crescendo the lighting returns the natural bright as seen in the beginning and the series of events unfolds. The camera swings from an objective to subjective view point. The camera shots and angles is mostly mid shots with though from a subjective view point the shot is a close up. From the objective view point it is a long shot. The editing is not set at a fast pace which emphasises the spoof nature of the film. A few fade outs to text on scream connote the horror element, with words such as "blood" seen in dripping red to a black background.
Gender in this trailer is portrayed equally however a female protagonist is the supposed captor which is in following with a stereo typical classic horror.
In the beginning of the trailer their is a sense of equilibrium of two protagonists in a car speaking to one another, the lighting is natural and bright. From the next scene it is clear to audience that they are in the desert a slow pan of a car pulling up sets the scene. Then the lighting dims and slowly the music score is introduced anchoring the fade out to text on screen informing the audience of the equilibrium now being un balanced. The mise en scene now is in an abanded warehouse of some sorts. A contemporary twist on the classic forest horror scene, used to update the genre. The characters are predominantly female dressed in skimpy tops and shorts enphasising their sexuality, the males are in shorts and t-shirts. The lighting is dim and dark as the scenes are of a dark and unsettling nature a series of mid shots and close ups show women tied up screaming and one female holding a gun, who is then has a line which connotes her defiance, however she is punched in the face destroying her false hope. The music score anchors the moving images on screen building up the tension to highlight key bits and suspence. The camera angles and shots are majoritively close ups showing the emotions on the characters faces. Framed in a tracking shot. This use of the camera portrays the females of the piece as weak and scared and unable to be in control a stereotypical portrayl of females in film.Whipe shots to the next scene are used in the beginning and as the pace of the trailer quickens these are changed to fade shots to ensure continuity.
In comparison i am going to deconstruct Tucker and Dale v Evil
This is a Horror spoof and very different to the above horror.
Gender in this trailer is portrayed equally however a female protagonist is the supposed captor which is in following with a stereo typical classic horror.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Monday, 3 October 2011
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Horror Film Distributors
There are several niche market horror film distributors. Such as,
Hammer Distributors
Brain Damage Distributors
Arrow Distributors
They cater for horror and its sub genres fanatics, re releasing classic films and special editions that fans can collect.
This is a key part of the film value chain and the home cinema market which is worth 3 billion pounds. What this means for a b movie horror is that by releasing your movie on dvd first and if it generates enough attention you can re release it in the cinema.
Hammer Distributors
Brain Damage Distributors
Arrow Distributors
They cater for horror and its sub genres fanatics, re releasing classic films and special editions that fans can collect.
This is a key part of the film value chain and the home cinema market which is worth 3 billion pounds. What this means for a b movie horror is that by releasing your movie on dvd first and if it generates enough attention you can re release it in the cinema.
Friday, 23 September 2011
Marketing Terms and Questions
Define:
Acquisition: The purchasing
of a product by a company from another company to increase sales.
Major Distributors: A large
company in the film markets who distribute films to audiences. Often part of a
conglomerate eg 20th century fox.
Marketability: The value potential of a product to
customers and the benefits of this to the company.
Playability: The wholesale
appeal of a film to a wide audience.
Questions:
When is the ideal time for a
film’s marketability to be assessed by a distributor?
When a non commissioned film
which does not have a distributing deal, sends in a copy of the film for a
distributing deal, the distributors will assess then how marketable the film is
as a business proposition.
When is the ideal time for a
distribution deal to be in place?
Most big films will have a
distribution deal in place before filming or even a script has been produced.
However this ideal time is only in place if the director has a good
relationship with the distributors or a concept has been sold to a distributor.
What government organisation
co-ordinates the public funds available in the UK for film production?
Originally this was done by
the UK film Council, now it will be handled by the British film Institute which
is supported by the national lottery.
How many films per week are
released on average in the UK?
No idea.
What generates more money in
the UK for films?
Film Rentals.
When is a good time in the
year to release a film aimed a young people in the UK?
August.
What is a distribution plan:
The logistics of
distributing a film worldwide.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Thursday, 8 September 2011
A2 Advanced Portfolio
Our brief for the year 13 AS media studies advanced portfolio is to produce a film trailer, film poster, a film magazine front cover and evaluate our work electronically of the production portfolio using a blog. The genre setting of this assignment is within the horror genre it can be a hybrid production eg spoof, slasher. The target audience demographic which we are aiming to appeal to is within the age catergory of 15-20. A film poster that symbolises our project is shown below
This film posters target audience demographic is the same of ours and was a spoof horror template for the industry and is still successfull to this day with scary movie 5 on release theatrically soon.
A film trailer is composed to sell the movie to audiences it provides audience with a tantilising glimpse into what the movie is about and can generate a viral marketing reaction if successfull. This should be the aim for our film trailer.
This film posters target audience demographic is the same of ours and was a spoof horror template for the industry and is still successfull to this day with scary movie 5 on release theatrically soon.
A film trailer is composed to sell the movie to audiences it provides audience with a tantilising glimpse into what the movie is about and can generate a viral marketing reaction if successfull. This should be the aim for our film trailer.
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
evaluation of AS
This island represents my experience of AS.
- How re- taking the year gave me the chance to be more focused and produce a better product in the coursework.
- This also gave me an advantage in blogging, to use it to its full capabilities and evaluate my work better.
- Though i put exams and pressure in the bad box i felt that i dealt with these problems in a calmer and more systematic way which would aid my end result.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Evaluation of filming process
Our group consisted of Dylan, Catherine, Jennifer, Paige, Ismail and Matt. This presented a problem because their were so many of us in the group. We decided to do two meetings and split group and give each of us the chance to experience a diffferent role in the filming process. The film would be a short 5 minute clip of a meeting. In the first meeting we had Catherine, Dylan and Jennifer as actors, Ishmail as the camera man and Matt producing. This meeting focused on an investment scam entrapping the main protaganist Dylan and Catherine, Jennifer the scammers. The script was made in collaboration by Catherine and Matt with creative input from the whole group. In the filming we used a tripod to ensure continuity in the cinematography. In evaluation this extract was pulled off successfully, however the group as a whole could have done more planning in the beginining and tried to co ordinate cohesively as a unit. In my responsibilities as producer i should have taken a greater control of procedings and a script on time.
In the second extract the meeting was a drugs deal. With Ishmail and Matt as lead protaganists, Catherine directing, Jennifer as camera women and Dylan as producer. Due to the lack of time and overall lack of imangination and creativity this was less successfull in its purpose. In evaulation this taught me a lesson in time management and producing a quality product consistently. As a group this was less successfull because not everybody had a say in procedings or input. In my responsibilties for this extract i only put in a limited amount of effort, in the future for development personally i should try to be more consistent under pressure. Using technology in this task i learnt i needed to practice more with a flip camera, filming a extract. With the editing process though i do no how to use imovie i need to practice that as well so not to forget components.
In the second extract the meeting was a drugs deal. With Ishmail and Matt as lead protaganists, Catherine directing, Jennifer as camera women and Dylan as producer. Due to the lack of time and overall lack of imangination and creativity this was less successfull in its purpose. In evaulation this taught me a lesson in time management and producing a quality product consistently. As a group this was less successfull because not everybody had a say in procedings or input. In my responsibilties for this extract i only put in a limited amount of effort, in the future for development personally i should try to be more consistent under pressure. Using technology in this task i learnt i needed to practice more with a flip camera, filming a extract. With the editing process though i do no how to use imovie i need to practice that as well so not to forget components.
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
starting yr 13
I have now moved into yr 13 doing A2 coursework, as a practice exercise we were set the task of filming a short sequence of a meeting of our choice. To do this we were given a kodak flip camera and a tripod and a set list of shot types, mid shot, close up.
The groups turned out to be a lot larger than previously thought, this was a set back as we had to film to meetings. In my group our first one was a scam investment meeting. This worked well because we had the right setting in school and a mix of girls and boys. The second was just two boys, with this cast we decided to do a drug deal.
The shot types we used were:
The groups turned out to be a lot larger than previously thought, this was a set back as we had to film to meetings. In my group our first one was a scam investment meeting. This worked well because we had the right setting in school and a mix of girls and boys. The second was just two boys, with this cast we decided to do a drug deal.
The shot types we used were:
- Pans to the left and right.
- Tracking shots.
- Mid shots.
- Close ups.
The picture to your left is the newer version of the kodak flip camera used. We also used a tripod to create a smooth transition of action in the sequence. This camera is perfect for this as it has mobility.
We were given clear safety instructions to keep within school grounds and to create a hazardous situation. In our group we made a story board of the action and one of the benefits of doing two sequences was that everyone experienced two roles in filming.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
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