A little help please?

To be honest as a media student I don’t really have much experience in filming (for many reasons including the fact I only began the course this academic year.) I’ve been looking at all sorts of media openings from thriller openings to romcoms and I’ve even done a prelim practise to get used to the cameras and software (which by the way can be seen further down the blog…) I needed a little expert help so who better to consult than my media teacher?

What about shooting in the shop (the location)- the 180° rule? Does it matter if I broke it? Would it look weird?

All I have to do is make sure I take shots of the whole shop- for example pan shots to establish the shop and there are actually FOUR walls. That’s ok, I can film that.

Do my shots look alright?

Most of my filming is good (except for the small matter of the shots that didn’t include continuity- oops) but the fact I have chosen the genre ‘thriller’ isn’t really showing, my shots are too slow and I needed quicker cuts and a faster pace. Quite simple- I cut out all the pretty zooms; for example when the mystery character is outside I don’t need a long zoom to get him back in the frame- a quicker cut would be fine and a lot more fitting.
The shots I plan to put at the beginning (close-ups of Laura sorting things out in the shop) of the opening sequence are ok as they establish that the character is in the shot- and in the shop. Also it gives me a chance to show the titles (the name of the cast. The ACTUAL title will come at the end.)

Except from the faster cuts to make more of suspense I should add other effects to create a sort of ‘reconstruction feel’- which is the kidnap, and to show the audience the kidnap is separate from the main part of the film. Similar to openings of murder mysteries it is a good idea to create a detached effect from the rest of the film. To achieve this I will have to look at different effects such as black and white and blurry etc… which I can use on my footage.

How does it seem more ‘thriller genre’ type apart for faster cuts and colour effects?

The content is also very important- the most important. Making sure I tell the audience the story, but not giving everything away or showing everything that (so the audience can't make judgments or guess clues.)
e.g.
The characters; *the young adult woman alone in the shop.
*The mystery character clearly planning something dodgy.
The location; *the shop- its closing time, its dark, the character is all alone…

Showing quick cuts will create pace and keep the audience in suspense for what is about to happen

As earlier said, to keep the opening detached from the main story it was a good idea to change the effects for the opening. To establish this and show the audience my whole film won't be in the same effect, I will have to show a quick shot sequence after the title- Something totally different from the kidnapping.

Back to the story board…

To come away from the first characters we see (Laura and the kidnapper), it’d be a good idea to introduce new ones and what a better way than for the police to discover that Laura is missing (And it’d tie in the title too!)

I will add the storyboard for the next part…..

Today I loaded my half finished film onto the mac and started to cut the shots up into pieces (well technically I cut out lots of shots that were definitely not going into my film which i had filmed over and OVER.)
I still have lots of gaps to do more filming and some technical stuff (like; did i get the right shot? OR was it the right choice of shot? If not then I will be re-filming these next time.

Coursework is quite hard work especially doing the film on my own. I hope it goes well for my sake as well as the people reading this and will update soon.

bye for now :)

STARTED FILMING!!!

I started filming on the 24th of January.

It was quite fun and interesting trying to work out all the different shots and angles.
It took several shots to make sure I got the shot of Laura walking to the door just right. Laura got a bit annoyed...

After getting as many shots as possible from as many different angles as possible it was time to bring in the second actor.

My idea and aim to get a shot of Laura walking was to filmed from both inside and outside (the outside being from the point of view from the second actor). Getting a shot of Laura walking from the outside proved VERY difficult.
there were several affecting factors;
*the traffic- cars kept zooming past in the shot and it was a matter of continuity to have NONE in the shot.
*the actor- who sometimes got the actions wrong
*the other actress inside the shop who didn't see us signalling to 'GO!' at the right time.

On top of all this I had to make sure I got the right shot LOOKING right! It was difficult and time was not on our side (we started to freeeze in the wonderful Januray weather) but we got there eventually.

After watching it back I realised there was a slight problem of CONTINUITY. the shots of Laura which I filmed from the inside and then from the outside differed in one way--- Laura didn't wear a coat from the inside shots, but from the outside shots she did. I didn't realise this until afterwards (while watching and then moaning at my really silly mistake) so when I film next Sunday (or possible change of date) that is one thing I will definitely be looking out for and checking over and over again!!...

...And reshooting the inside shots of course!

Plot synopsis- if my film was real...

LOOKING FOR LAURA- Possible plot synopsis of the whole film

Laura has been placed under a witness protection programme in a small village with a new life and job. When she is kidnapped, the police strongly suspect a group of people she has previously tried to escape by going into the witness protection programme.
The story is not so much about the chase, but the suffering and pain, fright and lonliness Laura has to endure- not knowing which hour is her last…

After several heart stopping almost escapes and near death experiences- Laura is almost in reach of the Police.

Does she get saved? I don’t want to spoil the ending…

This is my final and furthest developed idea of the plot line. Some things have changed slightly to add more to the story and i have thought further about shot angles and ideas....

This is the initial idea i had for the plot line in the first opening two minutes of a made up film. This is a rough idea which had to be further developed...

After the research and the idea I filled in a proposal form basically proposing everything I wanted to do from the actors to location even to props and computers.

I went into further detail in the different genres my film might have been made from;

I decided that thriller was the best genre to do, as I'd be able to build up an opening and create tension with music and pace of shot. There was also lots of techniques I could use and develop.

I analysed several comedy film openings looking at shots, music, titles, lighting and other aspects

I then analysed some romcoms. They are very poular in the film industry and have a wide audience range.

I also analysed some action and adventure films but concluded they are too complicated and too high budget to make.

Because I wasn't too sure of which genre to go into. I decided to do a little research and here are many different genres I could go into;

War films
Science fiction
Thriller- explosive, scary, mystery, action, sci-fi
Horror
Romantic- tragedy, comedy
Action
Fantasy
Fiction
Comedy
Historical/period
Drama
Children’s- animated
Adventure
Musical
Western
Crime
Teen
And many, MANY more…..

NEW PROJECT; AS coursework film.

Hello!

I am going to start an exciting new project which is my AS media coursework. The subject of this is a two minute opening of a film of a genre and topic of my choice.