EVALUATION OF THE EXCHANGE

For 'The Exchange' exercise I worked in a group of four consisting of myself, Dianne Hamilton, Kirsten Day and Courtney Smith. We each has responsibilities for the exercise; Dianne and Courtney were to be doing the acting so in scenes including both of them Kirsten and I shared the filming duties. In scenes where it was just one of the, the other actor would film it in order for everyone to get a chance to film. We all helped out with the costumes and props, bringing in different things that we knew would help with the Mise-en-Scene. I feel I made a good contribution to the group, and although I struggled a little with the zoom on the camera I think I did well.

Before being able to start shooting we had to fill out all the pre-production sheets. We had to first come up with a synopsis, treatment and storyboard which we did as a group. Dianne drew up the storyboard as she is the most artistic out of all of us. We then filled out location and H&S sheets together, making sure everyone agreed with what was being put down. We worked very well as a group because everyone gave each other time to speak and share ideas.

Our exercise itself came out quite well, and our feedback and critique was quite positive when we screened it to the rest of the class. We used good framing the whole way through and stuck by the 180 degree line rule. Our technical production values were on the whole quite good, however there was one seen where there was a double zoom giving a jerky effect which weakened the piece slightly. It would have been fine if our whole exercise had been filmed in a jerky and uncomfortable way, but the rest of it was quite smooth so this mistake really stood out. I was the one who filmed this shot, meaning that the mistake was mine. What went wrong was the zoom on the camera is quite sensitive and it is hard to get a perfect zoom without it at some point speeding up or slowing down. I also had to try and catch up with the actors, meaning I panicked and clearly messed up. We watched all the footage before we left the location but obviously didn't pick up on it at the time, if we had we could have re-shot this part in order to make the whole piece a lot cleaner. Apart from that, our technical factors were considered very good. The piece was described as 'simple, but well done' and someone said 'less is more' in this case. The only editing issue was some people thought the scene where Dianne is walking up to Courtney was too long, we had already broken it up into two parts but people still thought it was a little slow compared to the rest of the exercise. They did like the cross cutting we used to break it up thought. They also thought the high contrast black and white effect we added in the editing worked quite well.

In terms of stylistic factors, we got good feedback. Our piece used slower camera work, and a tilt up of Courtney that was quite Film Noir and the class voted yes to the question of ours looking like a Film Noir/Thriller. The Mise-En-Scene was good because we tried hard with costumes, making Courtney look shady and Di like a femme fatale. The location was good, especially with the frozen icicles and the billowing smoke. We chose a royalty free song from the internet which was a slow, jazzy through back to Film Noir. Someone said this could have been a little bit more dramatic when the handover happened, but apart from that it was good and fitted with the piece well. We had quite clear narrative, although there was no close up of the handover so no one actually knew what was being passed from Courtney to Dianne. We story-boarded a close up, but must have missed it out on the day.

Overall, I am really proud of our Exchange piece, even with the jerky zoom. I think our stylistics were spot on and we had minimal mistakes. The only thing I would have done better, looking back, was shooting a few more shots so we would have had more to work with in the edit.

BREIF FOR THE EXCHANGE

In order to further test and develop our skills using camera equipment we had to produce a shot sequence named 'The Exchange'. It was to be in the style of a film thriller and involve one character exchanging an important item with another character. It had to have no more than 12 shots with no dialogue. Music and titles were to we added in the edit.

As with our last task, there were some pre-production things to be done. We had to script a synopsis, create a treatment and storyboard it. As a group of four, we had to fill out location and H&S sheets. There were also post-production tasks, mainly consisting of editing the piece and finding appropriate, copyright free music. The final sequences are to be screened to the class and evaluated following their comments. My personal evaluation of my group's piece will be posted on this blog.

IDEA FOR A CONTEMPORARY NOIR

Rough synopsis: As a college student, the hero has not much on his mind but girls and A levels. One day he is smiled at by a girl, who then approaches him as he leaves college. She asks him out for a coffee, and he agrees. They begin talking, and soon start a relationship. He thinks he has hit the top, but one rainy night she comes to his house late at night. She is crying, soaking wet and covered in dirt. He invites her in, worried and she begs him to hide something for her. He is wary at first, but she convinces him and eventually they sleep together. He then decides that anything is worth it for her, and doesn’t question what she has hidden in his house. Life goes on as usual for a few days, but suddenly the girl stops talking to the boy. He sees her around with another guy, and begins to get jealous. He remembers the package she hid, and opens it one night when he is home alone. He finds lots of packets of £20 notes. He gets worried, and there is a knock at the door. He opens the door and two men are standing there with their faces in shadow. They grab him and he is forced into a van. He is gagged and bound, and the doors are closed behind him. He feels the van move, and rolls into something hard but blacks out. When he comes around, the van doors are open slightly and light in shining through. He notices he is amongst two other young men. The doors are pulled open and all the men are dragged into a garage. They are then interrogated, and it is revealed that the money belongs to a rich man that the girl had wronged. She stole the money from him to help her family, who were suffering due to excessive government spending cuts. She was meant to be babysitting his children, but took it upon herself to earn money by stealing it from him instead. It turns out that the other men that were also tied up in the van are people who the girl used to hide the cash with. The total amount is shared amongst all three boys. They are tied up, and then the girl is brought in. She is forced to explain to them what is happening, at gunpoint. She is asked where the money is, and says it is at the boy’s house. The truth is it is spread equally, but she lied to save two lives. Or so she thinks. The other two boys are taken away, and their houses are searched. The girl and boy are left in the garage and the opening scene plays out. When he comes to, he wakes up to a gun by his head. The girl is holding it, and by her legs is one of the men who had captured them earlier. She says she has it all planned out. She’s going to run away, but she can’t leave any evidence behind. She unties him and he thinks she is going to make him leave with her. Instead, she shoots the boy, but fails to kill him. She drops the gun in shock, and slides to the floor in tears. She buries her head in her hands and the boy grabs the gun. She looks up and realises what is going on, a look of fear appears on her face as she is shot in the heart. He runs out of the garage and collapses on the floor outside.

Rough idea for the opening sequence: The opening sequence would start as many Film Noirs do, with the end at the beginning. The main character will be gagged and tied up in a dimly lit garage. He will talk about his situation using voice over narration, giving an insight into the storyline. The audience will then view the story from the start, with an introduction to the main character, his friends and the femme fetale. The audience sees that the main character goes to college, and the relationship between the main character and the femme fetale is set up.

EVALUATION OF THE PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

For the preliminary exercise we worked in a group of three. I worked with Dianne Hamilton and Kirsten Day. In order to be sure there were enough people to act and film we teamed up with another group, who acted for us. In return, we did acting for their exercise.

Before we could even begin filming we had to create a storyboard and a script. We all created individual storyboards and then compared them. As a group we planned a final storyboard which detailed what each shot would be and the camera angles. We then drew up a rough script which consisted of a simple conversation relating to what the characters were doing that evening. This meant that it did not take away from the filming techniques we were trying to show. Once this had all been sorted we had to collect our equipment and set it up correctly. We were using a camera, tripod and microphone in order to capture the sound of our actors talking. There were a lot of wires involved so we carried the equipment together to avoid anyone tripping over anything. Once everything was set up we began filming. In order to make sure everyone had a fair shot at filming we each did two shots and then swapped over. Whilst one person was filming, the other would hold the microphone and the other would note down the shot timings. This was really helpful when it came to editing because we knew exactly where the shots were on the tape and which ones we wanted to use. When it came down to editing we took turns and each had input. This meant that by the time it comes to editing our final piece we will all know how to do everything involved and can identify out strengths and weaknesses in order to work more productively as a group. As a whole I think we did really well, and each helped each other to succeed. I feel I learnt a lot and so did the others in my group. In terms of skills, I learnt how to use an external microphone which I'd never used before. I also learnt how to edit in Final Cut Pro I think I did quite well with the new skills, and didn't really struggle.

Focusing more on the actual exercise, the technical quality is quite good. However, there are a few mistakes. During the first part we were shooting in a corridor and because of the amount of equipment and people we were quite restricted with space. This meant that when the actor reaches the door their head gets cut off. This was somewhat unavoidable, so it would have been nicer to have used a wider corridor or different setting. Once we were inside the room we had a lot more space so the shots in the room are much better. However, as the actor sits down he lets out a little laugh. The exercise would have looked a lot better if we had re-shot that, as it looks somewhat unprofessional. The sound is good and even throughout, however there is a small blip around 24 seconds where we clearly left the shot too long. This was something that went wrong in the editing process and we clearly missed when reviewing the final exercise. In future, I would want to pay much more attention to the sound to be sure things like this don't happen. I also think it is a little jumpy during the conversation, there seem to be a lot of shots for such a short amount of time. I think we were trying to show all the shots we could do, but in future should probably stretch them over more time. The conversation was quite fast, and we should have probably asked the actors to talk a little slower. However, I feel the composition is quite good and the actors are framed well in the shots. The mise-en-scene was good as the actors look like college students and it is clear they are in a college environment. The narrative works well as it is clear they are friends talking about their plans for later on. We didn't really have a genre for this as it was just a simple exercise. Also, it was not screened to an audience so we do not have any audience feed back. Due to the fact it was essentially a warm up exercise the point of it was more to practice and enhance our skills, not to please others. I feel our ideas came across well and we followed our original storyboard. We also showed examples of the 180 degree line rule and made sure the actors eye contact lined up to make it look like a realistic conversation.

Overall, I am quite pleased with out preliminary exercise and think we did really well for a first try. There are obviously mistakes and things we could have fixed, but some of these we only found after completing the exercise. The only different thing I think we could have done would have been to use less shots, and slow things down a little to make it look calmer and less sudden. I think the text at the beginning is a little long too, especially since the exercise is quite short. Apart from that, I am quite proud of what we achieved and think our group worked really well.

PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

In order to demonstrate a basic level of skill and knowledge we had to do a preliminary exercise, before we could start preparing for our contemporary noir opening. Our brief was to film a short task, and edit it. It had to consist of a character walking to a door, opening it, walking across a room, sitting down and having a short conversation with another character who was already in the room. The task had to demonstrate use of the 180 degree line rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot.

Before we could begin filming, we had to do some preparation. We had to create a group storyboard using no more than eight shots. We had to script the dialogue that our characters would say, and keep it simple so that actors would not having trouble learning it. Once this was done we went to film our exercise. We then used the Macs and Final Cut Pro to edit all the shots together.

ANALYSIS OF A FILM OPENING: JUNO

Juno is a comedy-drama film from 2007. It was directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. It stars Ellen Page as Juno, a young teenage girl who falls pregnant, and Michael Cera as the father of her child. The film follows Juno's choices in giving the baby to a rich couple who can not have children, and what happens to all the families involved during the duration of the pregnancy. Although the subject of the film is teenage pregnancy and is not often a happy thing, the main feeling of the film is up-beat. The opening is Juno walking to the chemists to get a pregnancy test, and is done in animated form. 

The pace of the opening is quite slow, as we follow Juno on her walk to the chemists. It begins in live action but changes into animation shortly after the walk begins. In order to create the title credits more interesting it seems that they have made an animated short, instead of just having the plain boring text pop up on screen like many films do. Since it is an animation, you cannot convey the same moment as you can in live action so the cinematography is quite simple. There is clever used of soft pastel background colours which contrast with the hard colours of Juno's clothing. She is contrasting the soft background, and really stands out. Also, at some points there is no colour at all in the background, but Juno stays coloured in. The main prop is the bottle of Sunny D which Juno regularly drinks from. There is also a lot of nature; trees, falling leaves, etc. The location is animated, but gives the impression that we are in a small town as we see cars, houses and small shops. The background music is a very important part of the opening. The whole film has a very similar sounding soundtrack and songs are used regularly. The opening lasts as long as the song does, it is quite a happy song which match the calmness of the opening. At this point in the film the viewer is unaware that Juno is pregnant so don't understand where she is going. The music almost tricks the viewer into thinking she is going somewhere nice and fun, when in fact she is going to find out her fate. The names of those involved in creating the film appear on numerous places in the animated form of the town. For example, on walls or windows. The font is quite thick and looks as if it has been hand coloured, much like the animation itself. The narrative is

basically a young girl walking through her neighbourhood drinking Sunny D. It's a regular moment that happens millions of times a day all over the world. The enigma is 'what is her purpose? where is she going? why is she going there?'. We are introduced into the character of Juno, and all we know about her is she is young, apparently likes Sunny D and is going somewhere. We have no reason to dislike her, and she looks like quite a nice girl so the audience is more likely to be sympathetic to her once they discover her situation. We also briefly see high school runners, but they are in the background and are not really focused on. The titles give an impression that this is a low budget indie film due to the use of the basic animation. Not many clues are given to the genre, we know it will relate to young people so assume it will be some sort of teen movie. It doesn't really grip the viewer, but charms them. It almost grabs the viewer by the hand and says 'hey, come watch this, it'll be nice'.

ANALYSIS OF A FILM OPENING: SIN CITY

Sin City is a 2005 American neo-noir crime film. It was produced and directed by Frank Miller and Rober Rodriguez and was based on Miller's graphic novel series also named Sin City. It stars Bruce Wllis, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Elijah Wood and many others. The film follows three stories; one about a man who goes on a brutal rampage following the murder of his lover, the second about a street war between some prostitutes and some mercenaries, and the third about a police officer who is protecting a woman from a serial killer. The opening scene is based around the first story, and was created much before the rest of the film by Rodriguez in order to show Miller he could translate the graphic novels into a film without loosing their original content.

The scene opens with a woman walking over to a balcony in a red dress. Everything else is in black and white but her dress and her lipstick. A man walks up behind her and she turns around. He offers her a cigarette, which she takes. They kiss and he holds her, then shoots her and she dies in his arms. The camera then zooms out to an overview of the city and the buildings are in the shape of the film title 'Sin City', which then turn red and block out to leave just the text. The pace is quite slow, and the viewer does not expect the woman to be killed. However, as soon as she is it gives a firm idea of what the rest of the film will be like. It starts with a high angle shot, showing the vulnerability of the woman. The next shot is a mid shot, showing the two characters interacting. There is a lot of use of over the shoulder shots and close ups to show the emotion of the characters. When the woman in on the floor dying in the man's arms, it is a high angle shot in heavy rain. This is when the overview of the city takes over. The editing is very smooth and flows well. There is a moment where the two characters kiss, and the shot becomes almost cartoon like. This is because the kiss is staged, and the man is actually a hit man that has been hired to kill the woman. However, the audience does not know this so the sudden use of animation creates an enigma. The location is a terrace, attached to a large building. This gives the impression of wealth, although the location itself is not clear. We assume we are in a large city due to the overview.

The costumes are evening wear, and look expensive. They fit in well with the surroundings. The only props used are the cigarettes, lighter and the gun that kills the woman. The cigarettes and gun are actually mentioned in the voice over narrative so we get the impression that they are heavily important to the story line. The characters speak in a very hard boiled sense, much like the old Film Noir films. As this is a neo-noir, this has clearly been done on purpose to introduce the audience to the genre. There is use of a voice over, another convention of Film Noir, which adds more mystery as the things the character is saying do not seem to match the images we are seeing. For example, he says 'I'll never know what she was running from. I'll cash her cheque in the morning.', whilst we assume that he knows her because of the way they act together before he kill her. The background music is quiet jazz, and follows the mood and rhythm of the speech. It stops at the sound effect of the gun shot and then different music takes over as the camera moves away from the characters. It becomes more modern and dynamic, whilst still having jazz elements. It reflects the change of atmosphere, as a murder has just been committed and the audience does not know why. The title font is very plain, and very much in the style of Film Noir. The text is all one colour, a red which could represent blood as we have just witnessed a murder. The only title used is the name of the film, we do not see the names of actors, directors or anyone else who made the film. This means that there is no other text to distract the viewer from the action. The narrative is quite clear, yet very confusing. At first it seems that the pair are a couple but as soon as the man shoots the woman this creates an enigma, 'why did he do that?'. We don't really find out much about the characters, which creates another enigma. The audience immediately take a disliking to the man because he kills the woman and talks about cashing a cheque. This gives him in the impression of being corrupt and evil, and she seems defenseless. The production value looks quite high end since the opening is very sophisticated, and smooth. The genre is clearly noir, the atmosphere and voice over narrative are perfect examples of classic Film Noir conventions. The opening certainly grips the audience since it creates an enigma, and the audience wants to know why the opening scene has happened and what it means.