Wednesday 16 February 2011

Top tips for filming.

Top tips for filming your project:
  • Make sure your camera is fully charged
  • If possible take an extra battery with you as cold weather can drain your battery quickly
  • Make sure you are familiar with most or all of the functions on your camera
  • Make sure you have enough space on your memory card to capture all your footage and you will need to take more than one shot of each scene
  • Allow yourself to get to the location to set your equipment up
  • Make sure you have your shot list with you so you know what and how long it should take you to film a certain shot
  • Make sure you do a location recce so you are familiar with your surroundings
  • Make sure you have permission to film in your location 
    • eg:
      • car parks
      • public parks
      • shopping centres
      • college classrooms
      • college after hours
      • resturants
      • cafes
      • private property
  • Make sure someone knows where you are and when in case of an emergency
  • Make sure all cast and crew know where to be and when
  • Make sure you have back up cast so you can definitely film when planned to

Monday 14 February 2011

Test Footage




This is our test footage for our opening sequence thriller movie.
this is just a very simple version of what our opening sequence would be, we also missed out some scenes as we couldn't go outside due to the rain so it was hard to show the entire sequence.
We have also shortened it down just showing the basic camera shots we will be using.

Target Audience Research.

Our film will be certificate 15 as it within the BBFC certificate guidelines.

-The film will be based around violence but the violence is unseen and does not dwell on pain or injury.
-There may be strong language but it will not be aggressive or repeated.
- There will be no explicit scenes of sexual activity o sexual assault.

Our target audience will be people aged 15 or under. We expect our target audience to be mostly boys, this film would appeal to them as it focuses around a crime commit and a detective solving it and many others. We think this would appeal more to boys than girls as girls would be more interested in a comedy or romance film.

Our target audience may also be interested in movies such as;
- The Prestige
- Memento
- The Terminator
- Die Hard
- The Sixth Sense

In our film we will be taking different elements of each movie.

15certificate
       Location Recce 


We decided to film in the woods as it is a common location for thrillers.
It is good as it builds suspense as it is very eary and scary. 
It is on site so it easy to access and we can go film when convenient for us. 

Good Points: 

- Easy access.
- Gives a good backdrop and effect.
- Ambient sound available.

Bad Points:

- Train track near by which goes past regularly. If this is problem then we could mute the audio and record dialogue over the top. 
- When sun is out can see shadow of camera and persons.
- Because the terrain is rough and bumpy people could trip and hurt themselves.
- Could be a popular location for thriller filming so would have to find a quiet spot. 


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Wednesday 9 February 2011

Evaluation of Childrens Film

After watching our Children's Film we spotted a number of things that we could improve on in our Thriller project.

Such as;
- Allowing more time to edit the clips together.
- Making sure the shots run smoothly and link together well.
- The use of the match on action shot wasn't smooth which affected the continuity of the opening sequence. 
The music was not empathetic; allow more time to compose any music or soundtrack needed and to make sure it fits in with the appropriate scene.
- To develop and make our titles more complex and enable them to link with the genre or plot well.
(The points marked in red are the things that I feel I really need to concentrate on and improve for my thriller opening sequence)


However in our clip we also managed to spot any skills or aspects that was positive within our opening sequence:
- The acting from the characters within the clip was realistic.
- There was a good amount of simple dialogue which helped to represent the storyline.
- The credits were colourful; links well to the children's film genre.
- The storyline wasn't too complicated for the target audience.
- We used a variety of shot distances including close up, establishing shot, long shots and pans.
(The points marked in green is what I feel were my strengths in my childrens opening sequence)

    Childrens film Evaluation

    After watching our Children's Film we spotted a number of things that we could improve on in our Thriller project.

    Such as;
    - Allowing more time to edit the clips together
    - Making sure the shots run smoothly and link together well
    - Allow more time to compose any music or soundtrack needed and to make sure it fits in with the appropriate scene.
    - To develop and make our titles more complex and enable them to link with the genre or plot well.



    However in our clip we also managed to spot any skills or aspects that was positive within our opening sequence:
    - The acting from the characters within the clip was realistic.
    - The storyline wasnt too complicated for the target audience.
    - We used a variety of shot distances including close up, establishing shot, long shots and pans.

    Monday 7 February 2011

    Story Board and Shot List.



    "How to Prepare for Film Shoot" Presentation

    • "How to Prepare for Film Shoot"

    Layers to final product:
    • Preparation and good planning
    • Script writing
    • Test shooting
    • Shooting
    • Editing
    • Script Writing
      • write all ideas down
      • simple with actions and emotions
      • determine whether the shot is external or internal (inside or outside)
        • ext - college during the day
        • int - bedroom at night
    • Walk through
      • act it out
      • walk though your script
      • identify problems
    • Location recce
      • find location
      • find any problems
      • make notes on what you see or hear
      • take photographs
    • Digital storyboard
      • take photos of different frames
      • take photos of different actions
      • take photos of different shot types
    • Shot list
      • annotate your script
    • Test your shots
      • get familiar with your location
      • get used to equipment
      • identify props and costumes 
    • Organise your shooting
      • what restrictions do you have?

    Call Sheet Research

    Call sheet:
    • The daily call sheet is a filmmaking term for a sheet of paper issued to the cast and crew of a production,  informing them where and when they should report for a particular day of shooting.
    • Call sheets also include other useful information such as contact information such as phone number and other contact details, the schedule for the day, which scenes and script pages are being shot and the address of the shoot location. 
    • Call sheets may also provide logistical information in regards to the location. 
    • It is common to find weather information, sunrise/sunset times, local hospitals, restaurants, and hardware stores. 
    • Call sheets also detail information about cast transportation arrangements, parking instructions and safety notes.
    Examples:


    Wednesday 2 February 2011

    Lesson time planning

    We have decided to film where our media lesson would be. This would be on a monday, wednesday and thursday.
    We also have some free periods we could work in and lunch time if necessary.

    We plan to film all the location shots together,
    for example; we will film all the scenes that are in the detectives office together and then scenes in the forest and then edit them together.

    We hope to film around 1-4 scenes within our filming slots.

    Political Thriller

    Some conventions of a political thriller include:
    • Uses many locations - often focuses on different cultures or countries.
    • False heroes - characters we think are good reveal not to be.
    • 'Helpers' - Characters who provides the protagonist with something useful.
    • Threat is set against a back drop of political power struggle.
    • Plots are designed to give political power to someone while opponents try and prevent this.
    • Innocent people drawn into the political world.
    • Trying to prove innocence.
    One example of a political thriller is Vantage point.
    This includes a president and terrorism, which is a big thing in places like America  and is very political. As it has lots of clues to find and obviously different points of view hence the name 'Vantage Point' there are heroes and false heroes, innocent people being drawn into the political world and plots that can mislead the viewer.