Risk Assesment for part three.

Call Sheet for Part three

Part Three - Action

Single camera technique works really well for shooting action.

Our scene had to contain the following things in the following order:

• Starting from blackness
• main character waking up on the grass
• lots of running, fast action cuts, dramatic movement and tension
• character finds the object  and realises something important
• finish with a crash zoom of a characters face

 We also needed to compile a call sheet an a risk assessment which I will upload following this blog entry.

 On Wednesday the 30th May we made our way to Mount Edgecumbe, Torpoint. Tim had previously contacted Plymouth City Council to check that we were allowed to shoot on location. We were advised not to film around Mount Edgcumbe house or it’s surrounding gardens. This was not a problem and did not interfere with our production.

 Our film starts with a fade from black to Hannah’s face. She wakes up on a large lawn. There is no one around. She is frightened and confused. We filmed lots of shots of Hannah walking around, including shots of her walking through a secluded woodland. Our plan is to cut these together very quickly to create drama and action. James hid behind some foliage to film Hannah from the fist person perspective. This is the point of view of the stalker and anonymous text messager.

Shot list for part two

Butterface
By David McLaughlin

This is a single camera production, probably literally using a single camera as trains aren’t exactly spacious. 

 I think a lot of people can sort of relate to this. When You feel like you should, for whatever reason, say something to someone and then you never do.

The majority of the film is filmed from one angel, on point of view. I think this represents the one side of the story. The girl never talks and we never get a chance to see what is going on in her mind.

  He keeps putting himself down, which is really sad. As a member of the audience I wanted to but in and help, tell him to say something. It’s very entrancing because you want to see how it unfolds. Do they, don’t they? But the boy doesn’t do anything about it and nothing happens. It’s quite sad because she obviously wants him to say something. She went and sat next to him, gave him a shy smile. If she wan’t interested she would of moved. Although I understand that she was placed there, probably because it’s easier to film on a train that way.

 If you emphasise the situation and the tension you can imagine the drama. Say this happened to you, it would be awkward and it would add just a little drama to your journey. 

This is our original treatment for Phone Call - Part one. I’m going to re-write it with a few differences and a little more detail…

 Two people walk into a room. A young man and woman. The are arguing over something but it is unclear what. The room is tense. They don’t know each other but it isn’t awkward as they are obviously being pushed together by something. 

 A third character walks in, another young man. There is an awkward silence. The third character doesn’t seem to care about the problem as much as the first two characters. 

 The three squabble amongst themselves until the telephone rings. The young woman answers the phone, and the scene cuts.  

These are the story boards for Phone Call and a marvellous movie poster that Scott made for us. 

 Our group was summoned to talk about our video.We showed them James’s edit. Tim and Neil noted that as an opening sequence it works very well. It poses questions and hits the audience hard by dropping them straight in the action. 

 They explained that there where a few technical faults however I don’t think these are present in Scott’s edit. Not that James didn’t do a brilliant job. 

 Some of the shots drag on and in one shot the characters heads are cut off at the top although this could of been down to my camera work as the shot we were filming was a pain to film. I was trying to pan down, zoom in and manually focus, while sitting on the back of a sofa with a dodgy tripod. 

 We have been bestowed the task of creating a short single drama film over the course of 4 weeks. I’m working with Scott Bickle, Hannah Ryan and James Thorpe. 

 Week by week we have to film a little bit of our film. This boils down to a beginning, a tension building middle, a chase scene and an ending. However this does not necessarily mean four scenes.  

 After we were put into groups we were given an object. Our object was an old 80’s telephone. 

 We started to plan our ideas. We decided to open with a scene from later in the film and then spend the rest of the film re-tracing the build up to the opening scene. This is a popular technique in film. It’s used in Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Megamind and Citizen Kane. It grabs the attention of the audience by putting them in the heart of the action. It can also be a great way to set the tone of the film and give clues to the plot. It can get the audience thinking which is always good as they then feel the need to pay attention even if the film isn’t complicated. 

Our film is about three people who are brought together by an unknown force. The phone is the link to there involvement with the object. Each character revives an identical message. It starts off as nothing and becomes more menacing as they are blackmailed via text. The two characters played by Hannah and James meet simply by chance and Hannah discovers that the are both victims of these messages. They are sent a picture of Scott with the caption ‘Find him’. They catch up with Scott and work together to find and stop whoever is tormenting them. 

Jaws (1975)

 This is the opening scene from Spielbergs classic Jaws. Granted these days the actual shark is more comical than terrifying but luckily the film relies on the art of mystery and the unknowing. 

 As the credits play the music fades in and before you know it the film has began. The ocean is scene from the point of view of the predator which at this point is unknown. Originally Spielberg wanted to reveal the nose and fins of the shark but it’s better left a complete mystery.   

 The music builds up and creates the impression that there is danger. Music is very good for building up tension, it usually gets louder as the ‘scary’ bit approaches. In this case it cuts out before something bad happens and cuts to a group of teens on the beach. As soon as it cuts to those teenagers you know one of them is about to die, especially in the long shot when you can see how close they are to the water. Something is in there and it’s going to get them.

 Chrissie runs along the shore and into the sea. At this point the audience is waiting for her to run into trouble. She swims out into the ocean alone. Jaws isn’t a horror film but it follows horror film rules. She has gone right into the territory of the danger, she is alone and she is oblivious. She will most certainly die now. 

 The slow music fades back in and slowly gets faster. Jaws has arrived and Chrissie is about to die but it wouldn’t be very interesting or scary if she dies instantly. It’s not a particularly gory film either so Spielberg can’t really on a gruesome shock faster. Jaws teases his victim. Chrissie is dunked under the water, she is violently  swung around in the water. She screams with terror. Her death is dragged out without jaws being revealed. This leaves the audience to imagine what Jaws is like. the audience will imagine what is most scary to them. This is very effective in scary films as everyone gets there own scary idea of what the predator (in this case Jaws) is. 

 There are lots of rumours surrounding this scene. The actress that Played Chrissie (Susan Blacklinie) was tied to a rope system that was being pulled to and through. This is why it looks like she’s being thrashed around in the water, because she was.  The rumour is that she was in incredible pain and the screams she let out where legitimate. That in it’s self adds a little fear factor to the scene.

Critique - Better Off Ted - Coming soon!

THE COFFEE CUP!

HOW WE DID IT:

We went to the ERC to get our equipment. Jack already had a camera so we only needed lights. Chris and I went to find a round table while Jack and Ben set up. 

We covered the chair at the back of the room with the same materiel we put over the table so it would look like a sofa. 

The image above is my poorly drawn diagram of our set up.

There is an over shoulder shot of Jack where you can see figures in the background. There was a white board on the wall that we wanted to cover up so we made Ben and Chris hold up the red material but they weren’t very still so you can just about see them wriggling around. I don’t think many people would notice though, unless it had been pointed out. 

 We had to keep moving the camera so we tried to do all the shots of the same type at the same time so that we were in the same place. 

EDITING

I did my own edit and I’m glad I did but I don’t like editing. It’s tedious and after seeing the footage so many times I get so bored of it that It’s hard to tell if what I’ve done is good or not. 

As always I’ll start with the negatives. I had a few problems editing but it’s rare for something to go perfect the first time. I had some trouble exporting it the first time. I ended up exporting it as a Quick Time file rather that Mpeg4 which we had been asked to do. As an Mpeg4 it was very grainy, and the image had been distorted. I’m not sure if this was because of the file type. I really must make more of an effort to learn about formats and other technical details. 

After uploading my video to YouTube I noticed there is a glitch at the end. There is a clip at the end that shouldn’t be there. If it had been misplaced anywhere else in the film it wouldn’t be a problem but it appears after I leave the table. So I must go back and tidy that up.

And now the up side. Although I’m not a fan of editing there is something nice about being in charge and making decisions on your own. It’s a shame the film hadn’t been more eventful, I  imagine Chris, Ben, Jack and I have very similar films despite doing individual edits. 

I had to think about continuity. Some of the clips weren’t filmed in order, and the phone on the table kept being moved and for a while isn’t there. I pointed this out when we were filming so we put in a clip where I put the phone away. This meant that when I (and the guys) came to edit I could move the clips around so that the phone was gone after I put it away rather that appearing randomly. 

I tried to make it interesting visually by moving the shots around. At the first shot of me walking in and talking to jack last ages so I split it into two to try and break it up.

I have to say I did not follow the storyboard or the shot list.  

My final edit of the Coffee cup. Actually my only edit of The Coffee Cup.
ENJOY!

Just some notes we made in class based on the start of films and how you start a film.

• Start at the end
  Lot’s of films start at the end. It’s a way of putting the audience in the middle of the action, to get them hooked. It also poses many questions to which the audience must watch to learn the answers.

• Introduction to the character/s
  It’s important that the audience has the right information on the right characters. Sometimes this means the characters get there own introduction. Sometimes, it is important for characters to remain mysterious and they are given no introduction. 

• Posing questions
• mystery 
  Questions and mystery and captivate the audience who will continue watching to learn more.   
• Prologue
  A prologue is used to introduce something or things as well as characters and settings.  
• setting tone
  It’s important to set the tone and atmosphere of a film. This can be done using special shots, prologues, meis en scene and colour grading. 
• trailers and adverts
• logos and idents
• BBFC
  The collections of trailer, adverts, idents and film certificates that are shown at the start of a film work as a number of devices. They inform the audience of any important information and also new movie releases. It’s important for film companies to make a name for themselves, thats why they show thier idents and logos before the film. The audience has to see them and after seeing them so many times they are remembered. When you’re sat in the cinema and you see the certificates appear on screen you know that the film is about to start, so you must settle down and be quiet.  
• music and audio
  Music and Audio are very important for setting the scene and creating the right mood and atmosphere. You have to get it just right, especially sound effects. It can easily be over done and become cheesy.  
• clues to storyline
• something interesting
• preparing the audience
   Its always good to hint to the audience what they are in for and show something that will get there attention whether its a major event in the film or the build up to something dramatic/scary/action packed
• shock factor
  Shock factor is quite popular with horror and gore films. A good example is the series of Final Destination films that relay on shock factor. Not just the surprise kind of shock but also incredibly graphic and violent scenes. These grip the audience and can be quite addictive to watch.  
• sweeping landscape shots
  Again, just another thing to set the scene and introduce the landscape. Something to look nice under the opening credits. 
• establish the world
• draw the audience in
• give the audience information
• journey

 We then concluded with the question ‘Do you hit or do you build?’ Basically do you start your film with a hit of action and intrigue or do you build up the scene.

I thougt this page was quite useful, check it out!