Wednesday 29 September 2010

The Accident - Self Assessment

Most of the shots from the movie flow well together but there a few which had some peoblems. There were a couple of shots showing an actor in a position on the scene, but the shot failed to flow as in another frame he started in a different position. Plus, there are a few shots which the cameraman says 'cut' at the end of.

The position of the camera was relatively good to show the audience what was happening in each scene, we even had a scene where it seems a character goes right through the camera. Although there were a couple of scenes where the camera positiong might have been better - when one of the characters fell down the stairs it could have been possible to show it with the camera above the stairs and character. We had also done a shot from above which made it difficult to see the scene and what was happening (and being said) in it.

Although we took a little longer than scheduled, the shoot went well. Most of our shoots went the way we wanted to, whilst others got better and we all tried to follow the plan made to the best of our ability.
Although we did go through a few problems, one of them being that during we were filming there were many people constantly walking past us (some of them greeting our cameraman) which wasted some time and made it more difficult to shoot some scenes, as well as making it impossible to shoot a couple and changing a bit of our plans to suit the movie as well as finish on time.

If we were to do this again i would try to take longer to plan out all the shots with the story and try to take many different shots of a scene to see which one would fit best. With more time i would also like to make sure that after the shoot the editing of the movie was good and that each scene was in sync with each other as well as flow.

Sunday 26 September 2010

Timeline - Terminator 2

Time
Sounds
0-15 Sec
Music signalling the beginning of a movie. Not important.
16-34 sec
A low, quiet, continuous tone from an instrument playing. Sounds dark and mysterious
but is followed up with louder sounds playing above the tone.  It plays four times and the pitch of the sound gets higher each time.
34-45 sec
The music continues to plays with the addition of a giggling girl in the background. In the last few seconds a ‘swishing’ noise is heard as it goes to a new scene.
46-72 sec
Nothing can be heard except for the sound of the wind and an empty swing being pushed by the breeze. Suspense is built up well here as there is no music played at all signifying something has happened or is about to.
73-87 sec
The wind is still the only thing that can be heard in the background but there is the addition of a character talking (narrating) to the audience.
88-99 sec
Something breaking is the first thing you hear on 88 seconds. Other sounds relating to the scene are being heard; sounds of flashes or lasers are heard.
100-120 sec
There’s a re-introduction to clear background music on 100 seconds and the sound of rocks being crumpled on. The music is a continuous loud sound similar to the sound played at the beginning of the music but it is a much lower pitch and plays more than four times. Sounds of flashes/lasers are still in the scene and near the end a crash sound, which could have been made by hitting cymbals together, are accompanying a dying man’s scream. 

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Mise-En-Scene

This is a long shot of a teenage boy leaning on a rail infront of a staircase in a hotel.
Him leaning on the railing as well as his body language could state him being in a relaxed state and wanting to look good for the camera. It could mean he likes his picture being taken (or he's a narcissist). His facial expression, althoughdifficult to see, does not show one of sadness or anguish meaning he does not mind this picture of him being takes as well as that he is happy with everything in his life at the moment.

He is wearing a black shirt and black trousers which could mean he likes black (since his trainers also have a hint of black) and that he is a sociable person. Although his crossed legs and his arms coming over his body could suggest a defensive posture which could mean he is uncomfortable in some way.

This picture was taken in a dark place where no natural light came through although due to the many lights the picture and the person in it are seeable.

This is an everyday holiday picture taken when me and my family went on holiday (this is my little brother), apart from that there was no real reason as to why this picture was taken. I personally wasn't there when this picture was taken and don't tell him, but i put this picture up without his permission.

Tuesday 14 September 2010

Enemy Of The State

1. The tension is built up via the different types of camera shots and angles used in the scene. The shots move from the actors to their faces to various other images on screen. The speed of the shots increases tension and the pace of the scene and movie with close-ups of the actors faces showing their facial expressions so the audience can understand the emotions the characters are going through.

2.The close-ups and angles of the camera are used to express the feelings and emotions the characters are going through. This gives the audience a better understanding of the characters and adds realism to the scene and movie also explaining the relationship each character has with each other.

3. 2.38-2.58 - The characters are pacing around the room moving and talking quickly with the camera angles and shots consisting of close-ups, mid-shots and extreme close-ups. The camera moves quickly going form one shot to another, from the characters to other various images and objects in the room. The scene goes from the computer screen showing bold letters saying 'Eyes Only' to one of the characters holding his head in frustration. This shows a quick paced scene which builds tension and suspense. At the same time there are other characters on another location closing in on the first two characters location which signifies something big is about to happen - which makes the audience want to watch more of the movie and be on the edge of their seat at the same time.

4.The quick paced camera shots with the amount of camera angles all fit in well with the genre (thriller) as it does build suspense and tension, just like a good thriller should. It makes the audience crave for more and the scene that was shot does it perfectly.

Work Evaluation

1. What did you have to do and what was the purpose of the task?
2.What have you learnt in terms of skills, key concepts and ideas
3.What would you do differently if you had the chance? What lessons have you learnt in terms of pre-production / production; in other words, how will you be more efficient next time?


 Re-Creation Video
We were given a task of re-creating a scene from the movie 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' with still images that would be taken from a camera. Our main aim was to take a variety of different shots (close-up, high-angle etc) of the people in the group.
I learnt about some of the many different types of shots there are (close-up, extreme close-up, long, high-angle etc), how to take them and how to set a scene using still images wth a variety of shots. I was also introduced to a new programme called iMovie, it was the first i had ever seen and used it which made editing the pictures a bit of a challenge.
Our time was limited when the shots were being taken and edited together, so one thing i would like to do is to spend more time on it - getting more different types of shots and doing them right. I would also like to be more efficient with the softare that was used to edit the pictures together since then a more higher quality display of work can be presented.

Cropping Exercise
We were given a picture which we were meant to crop out a part of it and tell the story of what the scenario /mise-en-scene was showing as well as make headline.
This task allowed me to manipulate an image to express my own views and opinions of the picture, to say what i saw in it. I was introduced to Adobe Photoshop to crop the picture and can now use the tool to crop effectively.
I would have liked to spend more time on the picture to come up with any other scenarios that could have been missed out, and to give myself to think about what is actually happening in the picture.