How have you worked at different stages?
I think I have worked at different stages because we planned out the filming, then played around with development idea's with storyboards and written plans, then actually doing the filming and experimenting with different filming techniques. I think it helped having a plan with the general filming because otherwise we would have had to improvise too much and the story wouldn't have made sense.
What problems and successes did you experience and what are the strengths and weaknesses?
We hit quite a few problems during filming which were detailed on another eblog post, such as acting, props and camera effects. I think a strength was our planning because then we knew exactly what we were meant to be doing. A weakness was the acting in the film because it wasn't serious enough for the plot.
What influenced your work?
We had a film title to run with which was 'After the Storm' which I think was very open for interpretation, so this was our inspiration. We used the storm metaphorically, as the storm being a argument before the fight broke out, then the rest of the film being the aftermath of the fight.
What have you learnt?
We've learnt about different camera angles, how to upload and edit videos and how to evaluate and analyse film clips. We've also learnt what works well in a film and what could be improved.
Friday, 16 October 2009
16/10/09 Evaluation Of Filming
1st shot: Girl laying on the floor being beaten up by a gang of people, originally meant to be filmed in black and white with a grain effect to give the impression of it being a CCTV camera. This could have been improved if the victim hadn't been laughing, but we couldn't find anyone else to act in our film.
2nd shot: This was the shot that you're meant to presume resulted in the first shot. The audience should assume this is the preceding shot, and that the shot was a flash back to what happened before the actor gets attacked. This is the first sign that this film has a non-linear storyline. This shot is when the victim walks around a corner and first see's her attackers. This also didn't go to plan, as the actual acting was poor because the person who was getting beat up actually just got pushed by the bully.
3rd shot: The third, fourth and fifth shots are meant to be of the actor blinking to show them regaining consciousness, but these were not a success because it is unclear what is happening. I think this is because of what is in the frame, because it is the edge of a building it looks as if the screen has cracked, whereas it would have probably been more of a success if we had been filming something less jagged and misleading.
6th shot: This is a shot of the actor regaining consciousness fully, then standing up in a way that's meant to show giddiness. I think this was portrayed correctly. Shortly after this, another actor comes up to the camera, which is now being shot as if from the eyes of the victim, and questions if the victim is okay, suggesting there is something wrong. This would have worked better if the person who asked the question had had more concern in their voice. This is then repeated so that you're certain something must be wrong. The acting in this wasn't serious enough for the plot.
The 7th shot is of the victims hand going up to what you're supposed to assume is their face, then the hand lowering again with 'blood' on, so you think they're bleeding from being beat up. This was actually tomato sauce and I think this was a success. They then continue to walk and get concerned glances from strangers, then as they round a corner they see the person who initiated them being beaten up.
8th shot: You're meant to assume this is a flashback because after seeing the bully, there's a shot of the bully actually throwing a punch towards the camera (victim). This shot would have worked better if we had been able to edit the shot, and put it with a grain effect, so the audience's immediate reaction is that it's a flashback.
9th: This is the shot where the victim gets her own back, and hits the bully character back for retaliation. We did this shot in slow motion as this setting wasn't on the camera, and again this wasn't serious enough for the storyline because at the end the person getting hit falls over and then laughs.
2nd shot: This was the shot that you're meant to presume resulted in the first shot. The audience should assume this is the preceding shot, and that the shot was a flash back to what happened before the actor gets attacked. This is the first sign that this film has a non-linear storyline. This shot is when the victim walks around a corner and first see's her attackers. This also didn't go to plan, as the actual acting was poor because the person who was getting beat up actually just got pushed by the bully.
3rd shot: The third, fourth and fifth shots are meant to be of the actor blinking to show them regaining consciousness, but these were not a success because it is unclear what is happening. I think this is because of what is in the frame, because it is the edge of a building it looks as if the screen has cracked, whereas it would have probably been more of a success if we had been filming something less jagged and misleading.
6th shot: This is a shot of the actor regaining consciousness fully, then standing up in a way that's meant to show giddiness. I think this was portrayed correctly. Shortly after this, another actor comes up to the camera, which is now being shot as if from the eyes of the victim, and questions if the victim is okay, suggesting there is something wrong. This would have worked better if the person who asked the question had had more concern in their voice. This is then repeated so that you're certain something must be wrong. The acting in this wasn't serious enough for the plot.
The 7th shot is of the victims hand going up to what you're supposed to assume is their face, then the hand lowering again with 'blood' on, so you think they're bleeding from being beat up. This was actually tomato sauce and I think this was a success. They then continue to walk and get concerned glances from strangers, then as they round a corner they see the person who initiated them being beaten up.
8th shot: You're meant to assume this is a flashback because after seeing the bully, there's a shot of the bully actually throwing a punch towards the camera (victim). This shot would have worked better if we had been able to edit the shot, and put it with a grain effect, so the audience's immediate reaction is that it's a flashback.
9th: This is the shot where the victim gets her own back, and hits the bully character back for retaliation. We did this shot in slow motion as this setting wasn't on the camera, and again this wasn't serious enough for the storyline because at the end the person getting hit falls over and then laughs.
16/10/09
This is a storyboard of our film. We didn't elaborate too much on the camera angles because we used majoratively handheld camera. The dialogue was also n/a apart from one shot, so the story board is quite accurate.
Saturday, 10 October 2009
09/10/09
Today we did our filming that we planned in the previous lesson. I think it was generally successful, but the storyline didn't come out as clearly as planned. We had to fill in a form to say where we'd be and at what time so that our teacher could come and find us, so we had to decide where in particular we wanted to shoot each clip there and then. When we left we headed for our first place of filming, which we needed extra people for, but when we got to the area, which was an alley behind a store, we found that there was barely any people around, so we had to improvise and instead filmed the shot in the college grounds and used some students who were willing to help. We had originally planned to get our high angle shot from being on a high floor of a multistorey car park and filming downwards, but as this was no longer possible we again had to improvise, so Charlie stood on a wall and filmed downwards to get the same sort of effect. We had also planned for this shot to be filmed in black and white to give the impression of a CCTV camera's footage, so it would make more sense. We ended up filming everything in the college grounds because it was easier and because all the shots led on from one another. We had some other problems too, such as not having anything to represent blood, so we improvised by using tomato sauce. Also we had planned to use a slow motion feature at the end of the film, but we realised this feature was not available on the camera's we were using, so instead we got the actor to just re-enact slow motion moving during the clip. Another issue we had with the camera/equipment was that we couldn't set shots in to black and white, which we needed to give the impression of CCTV, so the story was easier to understand. Without this the storyline is not as straight forward as we would have hoped, also because we weren't allowed to delete shots we couldn't get the filming exactly as planned.
We got all the filming finished in about 90 minutes, and got it pretty much exactly as we planned, apart from sound effects that were out of our control, such as a lorry reversing and people shouting, but as we weren't allowed to delete clips this was just how it was. We didn't use a tripod because we wanted the whole film to be quite personal and to use hand-held shots throughout. I think the whole thing went smoothly and to plan and that there wasn't much we could have done to improve it, because it went nearly exactly as planned.
We got all the filming finished in about 90 minutes, and got it pretty much exactly as we planned, apart from sound effects that were out of our control, such as a lorry reversing and people shouting, but as we weren't allowed to delete clips this was just how it was. We didn't use a tripod because we wanted the whole film to be quite personal and to use hand-held shots throughout. I think the whole thing went smoothly and to plan and that there wasn't much we could have done to improve it, because it went nearly exactly as planned.
02/10/09
Today, the group was broken up into several groups of 3, and given a brief of the work that we needed to do. We were told that the film we were needing to complete had to follow the theme of 'After The Storm' and had to be around a minute long, with 10 clips. Ashley, Charlie and I were put into a group, then decided to do a brainstorm of different ideas to do with the theme. Some of these ideas included a literal storm, an argument, and a fight. We decided to use the plot as the storm being a fight, so as a metaphor. We then started to piece the storyline together and eventually did a storyboard, and decided to make it a majoritively silent movie. We planned all the story and shots and angles, and had decided to use more than our group to act in the shots if necessary.
25/09/09
Cate Blanchett’s character in The Shipping News clashes with that of Kevin Spacey’s because their personalities are so dissimilar. Cate Blanchett appears to be quite careless and free-spirited, whilst her husband is portrayed as the opposite. Spacey’s characters’ personality is reflected in Newfoundland, which is intensely isolated and bland, and the audience’s first impressions of the surroundings would be negative. At the beginning of the trailer for The Shipping News, Cate Blanchett leaves her husband without a trace which leaves him feeling alone and downcast, this is why I believe he and his family went to Newfoundland to start a future, because the setting was well adapted to his mood.
The weather in the trailer for The Day After Tomorrow differs from that of The Shipping News because of the intensity of it. I also believe the cause of this is because of the film genre, The Shipping News doesn’t seem to have much of a fixed genre, or not one that you can distinguish from the trailer, whereas The Day After Tomorrow is a disaster movie, which makes the film need to be more excessive. The weather in The Shipping News isn’t too drastic because wherever the film is set is meant to have that climate, whereas The Day After Tomorrow is out of the ordinary and very exaggerated, and this is made more obvious by the way a lot of news reporters are featured on the trailer, exclaiming about the weather. This footage is what excites the audience, how the reporters are right in the midst of the storms and twisters and you can see all the carnage and destruction happening around them. This is very different from that of The Shipping News where everything is so calm and tranquil.
I believe that The Day After Tomorrow is the more believable of the two storylines, simply because it has happened once and can inevitably happen again, when in fact The Shipping News seems almost desultory and random compared.
Out of the two storylines I empathise more with the father in The Day After Tomorrow, because of his evident helplessness and determination, and just because his character in general seems more compassionate than any of those in The Shipping News, all of which seem fairly unaffected by their surroundings.
The weather in the trailer for The Day After Tomorrow differs from that of The Shipping News because of the intensity of it. I also believe the cause of this is because of the film genre, The Shipping News doesn’t seem to have much of a fixed genre, or not one that you can distinguish from the trailer, whereas The Day After Tomorrow is a disaster movie, which makes the film need to be more excessive. The weather in The Shipping News isn’t too drastic because wherever the film is set is meant to have that climate, whereas The Day After Tomorrow is out of the ordinary and very exaggerated, and this is made more obvious by the way a lot of news reporters are featured on the trailer, exclaiming about the weather. This footage is what excites the audience, how the reporters are right in the midst of the storms and twisters and you can see all the carnage and destruction happening around them. This is very different from that of The Shipping News where everything is so calm and tranquil.
I believe that The Day After Tomorrow is the more believable of the two storylines, simply because it has happened once and can inevitably happen again, when in fact The Shipping News seems almost desultory and random compared.
Out of the two storylines I empathise more with the father in The Day After Tomorrow, because of his evident helplessness and determination, and just because his character in general seems more compassionate than any of those in The Shipping News, all of which seem fairly unaffected by their surroundings.
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