Presentation with Danielle, Meg and Leah

After coming up with some ideas for our main task based on the brief we were given we made a presentation to present to our class as a group. This was the powerpoint we used for our presentation.

Film Ideas Powerpoint

Feedback

Following our presentation we asked the class for some feedback on what they thought about our ideas. One piece of feedback we got was that there was no reason for the girls to enter the house because if most people saw the door of a house open they would not just enter. This was a good point which we took on board. We decided in order to get around this problem, rather than having two girls go to the house we would have a district nurse. This would not only give a reason for entering the house but also for investigating it because she would be worried about her patient.

Once we told the class about this change another piece of feedback we got was that it wouldn't make sense for the house to appear run down because the district nurse would find it odd that she had been sent to a home which didn't look like it had been lived in. To solve this problem we decided we would instead make the house look like an ordinary home and it wouldn't be until the nurse got inside that things didn't appear to be right.

Our Plan

In class we were given the brief for our main task. It is as follows:

"Film the opening sequence of a new fiction film, including titles and soundtrack to last approximately two minutes."

This brief tells me that it must be an opening sequence of a film which has titles. It must last around two minutes and must also have a soundtrack to match the visuals. The storyline must be fiction so has to be made up and it must not tell the whole story but should instead introduce it.

In our group which includes me, Danielle, Meg and Leah we examined this brief and came up with a draft idea.

We decided to have two girls walking down the street when the spot the door of a house left open. They then decide to go inside and check it out. However when they go inside the door shuts behind them and as they are investigating they hear a loud noise coming from the basement so they go to investigate. As there are no lights they grab a candle and walk downstairs but when the get the the bottom there will be the sound of someone blowing and the candle will go out leaving pitch black. This is when the film title will come up leaving the audience wanting to know more about what happens.

Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task I worked with Danielle, Joe and George. Joe and I were behind the camera filming and Danielle and George were acting. We decided we would portray an everyday conversation and we chose to have someone asking about homework. We looked in detail at what shots would be effective and really concentrated on continuity between shots.

Preliminary Story Board

For my preliminary task I will be working in a group with Danielle, Joe and George. Before we do our preliminary task we had to draw a story board to give us an idea of what our shots will look like. There will be two actors who will be discussing homework and we are going to use our knowledge of different camera shots and movements to create a short piece of film.

Sound Task

In class we have been looking at the use of sound in films. We were given a brief for a task investigating the use of sound for different effects. The brief was:

"Create a short piece of a soundtrack (no more than thirty seconds) set in world war one".

We were told it must include dialogue and sound effects. I worked with Danielle for this task and we decided to the sounds of a battle field where a man's friend had been shot down and he was calling for help. In order to get the idea of a battle field across to the audience we used sounds of gunshots and to add to the tension we decided to make it take place during a thunder storm. We did this using sound effects we found and dialogue we recorded ourselves. This is what we created.

Camera Angles Task

We have been looking at camera angles in class and how different camera angles are used in films to portray different things. In order to apply this to my own work I drew a story board and then got two actors to pose for still images so I could try out some different camera angles. I took one or in some cases two photographs of each scene. I ended up changing a few things from my story board as I thought they would present the story better. This is what I came up with.

Camera Angles Task Story Board

To experiment with different camera angles and apply them to our own work we are going to use a day to day example of one friend telling another some shocking, sad news. To show this we will take a picture per scene and put it all together in a short video. Before we can do this we must create a story board to plan out what how the photographs will be taken and what camera angles we will use. This is our story board.

Examples of Camera Angles

In class we have been looking into how different camera angles are used in films for different effects. I searched the internet for some examples of various camera angles in well known films and here's some I found.

Camera Angles