Casting for us was rather easy because we only had one person to cast. But that meant that we had to think extra hard about whom we wanted playing that role. We spent a good amount of time on Google images looking for certain stereotypes. So we could get the face and the costume right.In the end we invited an actor that the school uses a lot called Russell Layton to be in our film. We paid him a standard day rate - which was ok as we split it between 4 people (about £35 each with travel and expenses) and managed to borrow most of the other stuff we needed. So the most expensive part of our production was our actor, so lucky we kept our action confined to a small room so we didnt have to go anywhere and cause greater expense.
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These pictures are some of our original storyboards.
We used ADOBE Final Cut Pro (which is a non linear editing program) to edit our prelim task and it was difficult at first. Some of the things we learnt included how to make bins of clips, and how to edit them on a timeline, how to make rough cuts and add audio clips to other parts of the lines. Later we will experiment with the audio for these images also.
What we needed was the right clothes and then some little other things to show of the character in his house - so costime and props were important to show personality and status of ouir main character. For example the skull that we had against the wall and the other things to show that he had travelled to Africa or somewhere exotic that brought back the evil force.
Another very important prop that we did need was the photos that had the black lines on them so we could get the continuity correct. We got are production designer Elektra to make the butterfly photos on photoshop and printed them on photographic paper, then borrowed lots of props like trays and tweezars from the science lab, and borrowed some statues from a teacher.
THE CHEMISTRY LAB WAS OUR ORIGINAL LOCATION BUT WE DECIDED IT LOOKED TOO MUCH LIKE A SCHOOL, SO LOOKED FOR OTHER ROOMS.
These are the photos of our final dark room at LEITH HILL with the red head lights
We were annoyed that are shoot day changed which made the chemistry lab unavailable, but in a way this was better as we ended up shooting at are second choice which was 15 mins drive in a school minibus away. We were lucky that are school sponsored this so we didnt have to pay for transport or a driver directly, and we lent the house for free through a friend of a friend.
We used a red bulb and black bin bags to block the windows, and with props such as tray, tongs, string (for hanging photos), film negatives, projector, etc, the dark room looks very professional.
The photos on the wall shows his hobby clearly, and the souvenirs shows part of the protagonist’s personality which is like to travel around different places.
For costume, we prefer the idea of casual and a bit geeky T-shirt to show he's just a ordinary photographer, therefore evoke audiences' sympathy in this way or they would see him as an average guy.
In this lesson we had are first go at actually filming something we started by recaping the camera settings and then we took a look at are first storybord. We were then told about the rule of 180 degress. We went out and filmed a very simple story bored with no dialouge. it didnt take long and only involved a few shots.
In this lesson we took are first look at the camera that we will be using in are productions. we lernt fist how to unpack the camera and the stand and how to put all of this together. We then looked at the actuall camera and lesrnt how to change all the settings on the camera. Things like exposure, guide frames and the frame rate, which is 25 fps for video and 50 for film. Film is high res because it has more fps, but you cant use it more than once like with a digi tape.
In this lesson we lernt about hte famous five these were crop saturation ect these were tools to help edit photos in a proffestional manor. By using these tools we were able ot do more things and create more conotations. For example if i wanted to creat an image were someone was thinking of someone we learnt how to change the opacity so it creatsa better image.
We looked at a movie called swordfish today and we tryed to deconstuct it in a way to pick out key things that were diffrent in this movie. We looked at thigs like mise en scene, editing, sound and camerawork.
We analysed the opening of Swordfish as a class to see how a successful thriller opening might start and what elements could be utilized by us. I thought this was a powerful introduction that showed a lot of thought and set the audience up for a lot of surprises in the narrative later. It was actually thrilling how a thriller should be. I really liked the focus pulls that made it hard to work out what the background was. I will now include a brief intro of the plot and some of analysis of the opening sequence of SWORDFISH.
The opening sequence is a monologue that revolves around the antagonist played by John Travolta. His slick hairstyle and designer stubble tell us a lot about his social class, and he's wearing slick suit and is formally dressed up. The props tell about his personality and status and they are a cigar,cigarclipper and silver lighter. These toether indicate his wealth,and together with his voice and dialogue,shows part of his personality.
The spotlight pinpoint element unclear with cigar and his face being emphasised. The glints of rings he's wearing emphasis his wealth and higher socioeconomic background.
Then through over the shoulder shot, we see the further mis enscene and that the situation is about terrorism or crime. The man who did monologue is the head of a group of terrorists. He's against the army/police force calmly. This together with his remarks and apperance, indicates part of his personalities.
The Police are then identified by the props(gun,etc) and custome(uniform). When the man is walking through the road, the sniper scope and rifle site shows the scrutiny of police while it seems like the terrorist is quite powerful and is the one in control if the situation, which shows a subverted/inverted stereotype.
The rest of the story… Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) is an elite hacker who infected the FBI's Carnivore program with a potent computer virus, delaying its deployment by several years. For this, he was arrested by Agent Roberts (Don Cheadle), convicted of computer crimes and spent two years in Leavenworth. A condition of his parole is that he is forbidden from touching, much less using, a computer. His ex-wife, Melissa, has sole custody over their daughter Holly and some form of restraining order against Stanley from seeing Holly. While Stanley is at home in rural Texas practicing his golf swing, a woman named Ginger Knowles (Halle Berry) shows up to solicit his hacking skills for her boss Gabriel Shear (John Travolta). For an initial $100,000 he agrees to meet with Gabriel. He and Ginger fly to Los Angeles, California and meet Gabriel in a night club. Gabriel pressures Stanley right-then-and-there to hack a government system in 60 seconds while at gun point and receiving oral sex. Although it was just a test (the gun was not loaded) Stanley succeeded in hacking the system, a feat that Gabriel had not anticipated. At Gabriel's house he convinces Stanley to write a worm for $10 million that steals money from a secret government slush fund on the order of $9.5 billion. Gabriel reveals to Stanley that he works for an organization called the Black Cell that was started by J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s, which is responsible for retaliatory attacks against terrorists who have attacked Americans. It is currently headed by Senator Reisman. Reisman discovers that the FBI has caught onto Gabriel and attempts to pull the plug. After Gabriel refuses to terminate plans Reisman attempts to have Gabriel killed, which fails. Gabriel tracks the Senator down while he is fly fishing in Bend, Oregon and kills Reisman.
The end of the film shows Ginger and "Gabriel" in Monte Carlo transferring that $9.5B into other accounts. The final scene shows a yacht being destroyed and a news anchor voice narrating that a suspected terrorist died on that yacht, althought the dvd does contain an alternate ending wherein Ginger is told in the bank that the account is already empty, alluding to the possibility that Stanley has played one final trick on them and taken the money himself.
In this lesson we learnt the basics of the camera that we will be using in our productions we learnt how the camera is set up. we leanrt about how every thing workds on the camers
we also went rounfd the school with a partner to take pictures of each other. the idea of theis exersise was to practise getting the diffrent shots that we would need to know in our production shot. and also learning about composition, looking space and the rule of thrirds.
In our second lesson we created a horror poster were by we used our photos that we toke and then we created a oor poster ere by we tryed to make a real horroe poster i created one were by it was in the woods and then i cut an iage of my self into it
In our first media lesson in the media sweet. were we lernt the basics of photo shop. The first things we covered is how to simply open and close and move around images . then we moved on ot cutting and pasting images on to each other and then manipulating them on each other maybe flipping them round or even chngeing opasity and then we were asked to use a film poster and to change the meaning of it by cuttigng other images of it on to the main poster and then changeing stuff.
Our fianl idea for the sequence is named Snapshot. The story is about an unemployed photographer who's using his time to develop photos of places around him. He is enjoying a relaxing session of devloping one day when things go weird. The photos he has taken of a field look odd and start to take on lines and shapes that do not belong . He looks at these photos in his dark room and gets confused, then suddenly puts these photos on the table and realises that there are some connections between the lines on each photos. He starts to try to solve the puzzle. Time passes, he solves the puzzle, which come out to be a dead butterfly. Cut to his scared face. Blackout.
He might wake up in a bed and start to piece together the evidence with a beautiful woman cop, about what happened to the people around him, and how they all died. There might be an evil from outside that has been brought back from his travels in his rucksack which would be signified by things like the African masks and wood carvings around the room.
After several discussions, our groups thinks and this is the best idea we've had. We want the dead butterfly to be the symbol of death.
My original idea was quite far away in face value from our final production but still remained to have a core part in our final idea. my idea was about the fear of something following you that was ambiguouse as in you didnt know wat it is. My idea was to use certain camera angles and lights to create the idea of a light following someone and the ide that you never see wat it is that is following them
Thursday, October 9, 2008
In our first practical lesson we went out and used a digital still camera and went out and took photos of each other. We took a variety of shots and angles some of these were. Close ups, wide shots, long shots, mid shots, extreme close ups, high angle, low angle and shots with intent. We also tried to pay attention to the looking space in the shot and the rule the thirds.
Reason I choose media is. Last year I failed at business studies, then I had to repeat the year and so I definitely did not want to do business again. My house master and tutor said that I might enjoy media because of its practical side so that is why I choose it.
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