Before I undertook the Media AS course I had no pre-excisting knowledge of the website "Blogger", this online blogging site is vital to the Media AS course. Blogger allows students upload, organise and showcase work in a sufficient way, Blogger is also useful because you are able to search for work under specific labels making it easy to navigate through blogs. The blogs are also very useful because it allows students to document there work digitally meaning there is far less paper work to take care of because finished work can be stored on the internet.
There was a drastic learning curve when it came to the cameras, being a skateboarder myself I was used to filming other people skateboarding which is relatively easy. There is a drastic difference when it comes to serious productions like our "Catch it, Kill it", I have learnt how camera angle and composition can say so many things about a character and even change the way the character is perceived by the viewers. Realising that a picture says a thousand words, using two minutes of footage to my advantage I tried to fill each shot with as much hidden agendas and inter textual references as possible. noticeably the consistent link to Peter Weir's Witness with the toilet sequence, we also did this because we liked the way that Peter Weir's film showed a difference between to different cultures and attitudes towards each other, yet in our production we use sexuality and try to fixate upon the negative stereotyping of homosexual people. This was done to shock the audience, not warp there views to believe hate crimes are justifiable.
My knowledge of camera angles has also increase tremendously from vague to a wide understanding. I have learnt different camera angles ranging from extremely low close ups, pan shots, tracking, follows and master shot. i know understand the connotations camera angles can give, for example in "Catch it, Kill it" there is a extremely low angled shot of the hooded character (Will) as he ambushes the other character. The extreme low angled shot represents Wills power, intimidation and also how he is over powering. whereas if there was an extremely high angled shot over will it would completely change the mood of the piece by removing wills power and authority. If i wanted to create a consistently smooth shot from any angle we used a tripod or even a dolly. Yet sometimes we found it hard to get a smooth panning shot using the tripod because it was very awkward to maneuver and the turning plate would stiffen creating awkward jerks during shots.
Keeping to our timed filming schedule was very difficulty because we would have to adapt our ideas constantly due to actors not turning up and radical idea changes. In the end we had to postpone the shoot until we had a solid idea which was simple and meant we didn't have to rely on other people, which is why the only actors are Will, Austin and I. We realised that filming in winter would be changing because of the early nights, we soon found that some of our footage was unreadable to others and resulted in re-shoots, yet the dusky weather created perfect locations to shoot because they included common aspects of the thriller genre like wet, cold dark streets and also gave a very dismal representation of Britain.
When we captured the film we used a program called Adobe Premier Elements, although being very limited it helped me generate new skills needed for editing very quickly. whilst editing I experimented with the fade to blacks and cross dissolves found in the large effects library, yet some successful and others looking very amateur. Sadly with Adobe there wasn't the option to alter brightness of shots manually, there was just the option to increase brightness, which sometimes resulted in the shots looking extremely pix-elated and tacky. At first editing was very tedious and un-successful, but once there was a chronological outline of the final product it was easy to see what needed to be changed and helped visualise the final product.
Music for the film was extremely hard to find, after searching many internet outlets such as unsignedbands.com, ccmixter.org and mobygratis.com. Personally i found it hard finding a suitable track which was full of suspense and speed, i then realised that most fast paced soundtracks made our video feel like the opening to an Action film. But this affect was used very well when making the trailer for animal kingdom because it enabled the film to appeal to a wider audience than just thriller fanatics. When placing titles we didn't want to distract the viewer from the action on screen so we placed the subtly in the corner of shots.
There was a drastic learning curve when it came to the cameras, being a skateboarder myself I was used to filming other people skateboarding which is relatively easy. There is a drastic difference when it comes to serious productions like our "Catch it, Kill it", I have learnt how camera angle and composition can say so many things about a character and even change the way the character is perceived by the viewers. Realising that a picture says a thousand words, using two minutes of footage to my advantage I tried to fill each shot with as much hidden agendas and inter textual references as possible. noticeably the consistent link to Peter Weir's Witness with the toilet sequence, we also did this because we liked the way that Peter Weir's film showed a difference between to different cultures and attitudes towards each other, yet in our production we use sexuality and try to fixate upon the negative stereotyping of homosexual people. This was done to shock the audience, not warp there views to believe hate crimes are justifiable.
My knowledge of camera angles has also increase tremendously from vague to a wide understanding. I have learnt different camera angles ranging from extremely low close ups, pan shots, tracking, follows and master shot. i know understand the connotations camera angles can give, for example in "Catch it, Kill it" there is a extremely low angled shot of the hooded character (Will) as he ambushes the other character. The extreme low angled shot represents Wills power, intimidation and also how he is over powering. whereas if there was an extremely high angled shot over will it would completely change the mood of the piece by removing wills power and authority. If i wanted to create a consistently smooth shot from any angle we used a tripod or even a dolly. Yet sometimes we found it hard to get a smooth panning shot using the tripod because it was very awkward to maneuver and the turning plate would stiffen creating awkward jerks during shots.Keeping to our timed filming schedule was very difficulty because we would have to adapt our ideas constantly due to actors not turning up and radical idea changes. In the end we had to postpone the shoot until we had a solid idea which was simple and meant we didn't have to rely on other people, which is why the only actors are Will, Austin and I. We realised that filming in winter would be changing because of the early nights, we soon found that some of our footage was unreadable to others and resulted in re-shoots, yet the dusky weather created perfect locations to shoot because they included common aspects of the thriller genre like wet, cold dark streets and also gave a very dismal representation of Britain.
When we captured the film we used a program called Adobe Premier Elements, although being very limited it helped me generate new skills needed for editing very quickly. whilst editing I experimented with the fade to blacks and cross dissolves found in the large effects library, yet some successful and others looking very amateur. Sadly with Adobe there wasn't the option to alter brightness of shots manually, there was just the option to increase brightness, which sometimes resulted in the shots looking extremely pix-elated and tacky. At first editing was very tedious and un-successful, but once there was a chronological outline of the final product it was easy to see what needed to be changed and helped visualise the final product.
Music for the film was extremely hard to find, after searching many internet outlets such as unsignedbands.com, ccmixter.org and mobygratis.com. Personally i found it hard finding a suitable track which was full of suspense and speed, i then realised that most fast paced soundtracks made our video feel like the opening to an Action film. But this affect was used very well when making the trailer for animal kingdom because it enabled the film to appeal to a wider audience than just thriller fanatics. When placing titles we didn't want to distract the viewer from the action on screen so we placed the subtly in the corner of shots.
An interesting and detailed response. You could add an extra paragraph re adding titles to your film and how important these are to give your film a professional look.
ReplyDeleteStrong Level 3 after a quick scan of your answer.