We have started to complete our preliminary task over the past couple of lessons and we will continue to plan, edit and film our short films for the next couple of weeks.
The first thing that we had to do was be put into groups of 3 or 4 and then as a group chose a genre. After much deliberation, my group, we chose to have the genre musical.
Once we had our genre of the short film which we were going to create we had to begin a brainstorm into what other musical films we liked and were popular. These therefore influenced how we decided upon our narrative. We then came together and created a narrative or plot for our film, with this we also came up with the characters, the settings we needed and the props and costumes which we would used to make the film more professional and effective. All the details about the Preliminary Task is in this presentation below:
On Friday 2nd October we had a speaker come in called Pete Fraser and he is involved with the BFI (British Film Industry). He was speaking to us about how we can create a successful film opening for our final project and what type of information we should look out for when creating the opening.
The first film opening we focused on with him was 'Catch Me If You Can' we specifically looked at how the titles were revealed and how the order at which they are shown is not random but carefully thought out. Also we found out that certain actors will request that their names are shown at a specific point, (e.g. before the film title.) This is due to their lawyers and others making sure that it is in their contract.
Pete Fraser then showed us this image above which is a picture of a timeline showing when specific titles came up and the order in which they came up and this further proves that they are not random and that when we are creating our film opening that we should concentrate and take care when deciding upon and adding the titles into the sequence.
After looking at how titles are added, we then discussed how you don't have to reveal the main characters in the opening sequence in order to portray across the idea and narrative of the film. A great example of this is in the opening of the film 'Dawn of the Dead'. In this opening it uses flashes of zombies and what seems like news broadcasting filming mixed with shots of petri dishes and over voices talking about the zombies and a disease. By doing this the audience is still able to tell that this is a horror film and that the film will be about defeating the zombies but doesn't reveal the whole narrative. Another point that we learnt through this opening sequence was that the font and animation that goes with the titles is key to further revealing the genre, which was shown in 'Dawn of the Dead' as the titles were made of blood.
The final part of the talk from Pete Fraser was him giving us 'Top Tips' on what to do and what to avoid when creating our final film opening piece. Whilst he was telling us that the small things add up to get you better marks he went through these nine steps for success:
Take Stock- So we need to think about what the task set is and how it will be assessed, what equipment we will need and what our time frame is.
Blog- We should continue to blog and keep evidence of everything we do, even if it is just explaining what you did that day in class.
Work on Skills- So that when we get to our final piece we are prepared, beforehand you should practice working with the camera, editing software and creating the sound through foley.
Investigate- We should look at film openings from the genre that we have decided upon for research and look at successful student examples to get an idea of what quality ours should be. Also we should be aware of the titles and think about how our film can be original.
Brainstorm- To get all our ideas together in a group we should brainstorm and present short pitches, react to feedback given to you and remember to be realistic in your expectation.
Planning- Plan what props, costumes ect. that you might need and think about what risks might be involved in your filming. Also experiment with your shots and lighting so you can get the best one and we need to think about logistics.
The Shoot- Make sure to have everyone and everything in the right place at the right time, rehearsed and prepared to be directed by others and keep a record of the filming while you go.
Editing- Continue to take screen grabs for evidence on the computer of your editing, listen to feedback from others and make sure you clean up the sound, lighting and use more than just a song in the background.
Evaluation- Follow guiding questions and look in depth at your final piece.
Over the past week we have been planning, filming and editing our recreation of the opening sequence of the film Juno. We did this so that we could practice filming, creating our storyboards, and editing in transitions or effects with a basis for us to compare ours too. Also by completing a recreation rather than our own film first, allowed it to be controlled and this made it easier to learn the steps which will be needed when creating an opening sequence.
Planning
This was our first task for this project. We had to watch the opening carefully and fill out a storyboard for it. In this we had to fill out what happens in each shot and which type of shot each one was, with this we also had to include how long each shot be around.
This was my storyboard:
When we went out to complete the filming we took these sheets out with us and this enabled us to know how to film the required scene and what it should look like. I also used these storyboards whilst I was editing as without these it would become quite complicated because I further wrote in between each scene what the transitions should look like.
Although if I completed these story boards again I would note down more information on each shot so that it is clearer to the people acting and filming as to what it should look like as the final product, because a couple times whilst we were filming the scenes, we got a little confused as to what the finished product should look like in comparison to the story board.
The other thing which I would improve in my storyboards would be the terminology which I wrote down to describe the shots. I think that this needed to be improved if I did this again, because a couple of times I didn't use the correct terminology. For example a few times I wrote that the camera should follow the character as they walked, however I should have called it a tracking shot.
Once the story boards had been filled out, we begun to think about the Mise en Scene and what props we would need to bring in for the filming, such as the juice carton, the red hoodie and the black shoes, as well as where the best place to film each scene would be. We decided this now so that when we went out to do the filming we could go straight out the next lesson and film from the very beginning.
Filming and Editing
After we had the lesson to complete the planning above, we then had to go out and collect the filming footage needed to recreate the opening sequence. (I took the story boards out with me, so we could check as we went along.) We only had an hour to complete all the filming needed, so we had to use all of our hour effectively to complete it in the time limit. Once we got all of our footage we went back inside and uploaded it all onto the computer. I then imported it onto Adobe Premier and this is when I started to edit and decipher the filming we had completed.
The editing took me the longest of each of the sections as I had to be very focused on what I was doing in order for the editing to be precise and as similar as I could make it to the original.
The thing that I found most difficult about the editing was making it the same as the original. This is because the editing programme which we use at school, obviously, isn't as high tech as the professional one which the Juno producers would have used and this meant that not every transition which was completed in the original was able to be completed in ours due to the software simply not having the effect needed.
Below is my final edit of my recreation of Juno's opening sequence:
I thought that by adding the cartoon effect which was called 'Find Edges' onto the film, it made the shots look a lot more like the shots in the original therefore making it look more professional. Also I thought that the way I cut the clips was fairly effective because you couldn't tell when she stopped and started the walking from when we were filming the scenes. By these cuts looking clean it enabled the opening that I created to flow between shots better and, again, therefore look closer to the original which makes it more professional.
However it could do with improvements. If I was to complete the task again I would improve the timings in certain shots. This is because in a couple of the shots in comparison to the original the length was too short, and this caused the next shot to be out of time and as a result, longer than it should have been in order to compensate for the previous short shot. The other thing which I think would have made my sequence better would have been to make the first two scenes just one long one as in the second section the tree isn't in the same place as before making it a filming mistake meaning that I have to use a blending transition, in order to cover this mistake up, which isn't in the original filming. The final improvement I would make on the video is on the tracking shot at the beginning, this is because in the original version the movement is smooth along in the shots. However when I flmed this part the camera jolts up and down, so you can see where I walking with the camera. Therefore if I did this again I would use something like a wheely chair to sit on and slide along so that the shot taken has a smoother feel to it.
