Over the duration of the AS Media course I have been able to develop on my filming skills from the preliminary task to our final thriller production. When filming my preliminary I found that my time management was inefficient and I found myself falling behind. When filming the thriller we made sure that we had made a storyboard to make filming fast and effective. Yet we still seemed to fall behind with prevented shoots due to acting problems, weather issues and problems with lighting. Many times before we had to re-shoot scenes because the images were unreadable, this became a problem because we filmed a lot of our production in the snow, so re-shoots became awkward once the snow had cleared.
(example of unreadable shot)
Editing was difficult also because as a group we decided to collect all of the raw footage we then began to edit instead of progressive editing after every shoot. We decided to do this because we found that we would think of better ideas of shots as we filmed, so it would be easier to edit all of it at once with a large range of angles to choose from instead of going back and applying different shots which may not flow. This then put us behind everyone else because they began editing whilst we were still shooting, this wasn’t a problem because we thought it was better to take our time rather than rush the edit.
Whilst filming “Catch it, Kill it” with aid of the preliminary task I know understand how shot plans, story boards and floor plans are vital. Also I grasped the idea that a storyboard is just there to guide, it isn’t a fixed plan of shot by shot. whilst on the AS Media course I learnt about shot reversed shot, match on action and the 180 degree rule. During the preliminary task I broke the 180 degree rule resulting in a re-shoot, having learnt from my errors the same mistake weren't made during the shot of the thriller.
(look at my preliminary task, it will help illustrate my points)
Looking back at the planning for the opening of "Catch it, Kill it" I put forward the idea of homophobic attitudes, this was because I thought that it was an issue relevant to the times and also commonly pushed to the side by television and press. When deciding on costume we looked at the current trends of teenagers and did this by visiting sites like Topman.com and also looking at films from Shane Meadows. We did this because we wanted to appeal to our target audience of 16-25 year olds by wearing the latest fashionable clothing. We went against the common thriller convention of wearing black trench coats and trilby hats, this was because we felt it wouldn't suit the theme of the piece. When shooting our Preliminary we wore our normal school clothes because there was a strict time in which we could film, whereas with the thriller we had alot of time to plan and research costume which meant we were able to make the intro to our thriller look realistic, and used costume to connote specific aspects of characters and also target the ongoing issue of hoodies in society and how they are linked with crime. Considering the idea of lighting it was very hard to film outside because a large percentage of our shots were unreadable and had to be cut out, this became a problem because it was hard to follow the plot so re-shoots were organised. Whilst filming I suggested the use of very low shots of the hoodie to give an ambiguous nature to his character.
Whilst planning our thriller as a group we were very influenced by Peter Weir's Witness and also Terry Winsor's Essex Boys, we liked the ways in which location was used to emphasis feelings of loneliness and distance from society. For location we decided upon toilets, we felt that they had an element of claustrophobia and also the cubicles showed how the issue of homophobia was taboo subject commonly brushed away by society.
When deciding upon a film title it seemed to find us, instead of us looking and experimenting with different names. Whilst shooting in the toilet there was a sign above every sink saying "Catch it, Bin it, Kill it". This was a government campaign done to prevent the spreading of germs and we felt it suited the themes in our thriller, and also the cubicle location.
Before starting the Media AS course I had made some skate edits for friends which I edited on free online editing site, this editing software was not to dissimilar to Adobe Premier Elements used in school, this meant that the editing process was easy enough to master. The use of fade to blacks within our production helps avoid awkward jump cuts from different locations, this enabled the plot to flow better and made it easier to read by audiences. If "Catch it, Kill it" was made into a full length film I think that the prolonged fade to black at the end would suggest the intro sequence as a flashback, because the shots seem to be held for a long time and only focusing on specific actions. For example when the curly haired character (me) goes to the toilet it suddenly jumps to a shot of me washing my hands, this seems very unrealistic, with the use of effective cross dissolves the sequence could have looked like a nightmare.
When deciding upon a soundtrack for the opening I didn't want to overcrowd the piece with an annoying soundtrack which would distract the audience from the action on screen. The soundtrack chosen is by Moby Gratis and is very melancholy with an eerie feel which i felt suited the uneasy mood of the piece.
After receiving feedback from teachers and peers on the film I adjusted aspects of the film. For example there was one shot which most people found unreadable and confusing so it was removed to make the film easier to read, this feedback was useful in improving the final product. Overall I think that I have learnt a tremendous amount about the connotations of camera angles, inter-textuality and the narrative structure of films, although being stressful and time consuming I enjoyed making the film
Looking back at the planning for the opening of "Catch it, Kill it" I put forward the idea of homophobic attitudes, this was because I thought that it was an issue relevant to the times and also commonly pushed to the side by television and press. When deciding on costume we looked at the current trends of teenagers and did this by visiting sites like Topman.com and also looking at films from Shane Meadows. We did this because we wanted to appeal to our target audience of 16-25 year olds by wearing the latest fashionable clothing. We went against the common thriller convention of wearing black trench coats and trilby hats, this was because we felt it wouldn't suit the theme of the piece. When shooting our Preliminary we wore our normal school clothes because there was a strict time in which we could film, whereas with the thriller we had alot of time to plan and research costume which meant we were able to make the intro to our thriller look realistic, and used costume to connote specific aspects of characters and also target the ongoing issue of hoodies in society and how they are linked with crime. Considering the idea of lighting it was very hard to film outside because a large percentage of our shots were unreadable and had to be cut out, this became a problem because it was hard to follow the plot so re-shoots were organised. Whilst filming I suggested the use of very low shots of the hoodie to give an ambiguous nature to his character.
Whilst planning our thriller as a group we were very influenced by Peter Weir's Witness and also Terry Winsor's Essex Boys, we liked the ways in which location was used to emphasis feelings of loneliness and distance from society. For location we decided upon toilets, we felt that they had an element of claustrophobia and also the cubicles showed how the issue of homophobia was taboo subject commonly brushed away by society.
When deciding upon a film title it seemed to find us, instead of us looking and experimenting with different names. Whilst shooting in the toilet there was a sign above every sink saying "Catch it, Bin it, Kill it". This was a government campaign done to prevent the spreading of germs and we felt it suited the themes in our thriller, and also the cubicle location. Before starting the Media AS course I had made some skate edits for friends which I edited on free online editing site, this editing software was not to dissimilar to Adobe Premier Elements used in school, this meant that the editing process was easy enough to master. The use of fade to blacks within our production helps avoid awkward jump cuts from different locations, this enabled the plot to flow better and made it easier to read by audiences. If "Catch it, Kill it" was made into a full length film I think that the prolonged fade to black at the end would suggest the intro sequence as a flashback, because the shots seem to be held for a long time and only focusing on specific actions. For example when the curly haired character (me) goes to the toilet it suddenly jumps to a shot of me washing my hands, this seems very unrealistic, with the use of effective cross dissolves the sequence could have looked like a nightmare.
When deciding upon a soundtrack for the opening I didn't want to overcrowd the piece with an annoying soundtrack which would distract the audience from the action on screen. The soundtrack chosen is by Moby Gratis and is very melancholy with an eerie feel which i felt suited the uneasy mood of the piece.
After receiving feedback from teachers and peers on the film I adjusted aspects of the film. For example there was one shot which most people found unreadable and confusing so it was removed to make the film easier to read, this feedback was useful in improving the final product. Overall I think that I have learnt a tremendous amount about the connotations of camera angles, inter-textuality and the narrative structure of films, although being stressful and time consuming I enjoyed making the film
More stills and any clips of abandoned raw footage would strengthen. It is also important that you add that the preliminary task taught you to do shot reverse shots, match on action editing and following the 180 degree rule.
ReplyDeleteIt would be wise to ipload your preliminary task to illustrate your points.
Level 3 (first impression but the above is important to include. Also the importance of an evocative and chilling soundtrack to strongly establish the genre of the film)