Diary Entries

In this diary entry I am explaining the 'flash back' scene:

In this diary entry I am explaining the 'bedroom' scene:

In this diary entry I am explaining the recce of the 'prison scene':

Titles

The Bonfire Of The Vanities


'The Bonfire Of The Vanities' contains one of the most complex tracking shots ever seen in their opening scene. During this tracking shot the camera is disorientated relating to the main character as he is drunk. This also relates to the genre as we can see its a comedy drama from the camera angels used in contrast with events happening, for example, the camera is disoriented following the main character through many rooms whilst he's knocking over plates stealing food etc. The film titles are white to show the coolness and cleanness of the main character relating to his glamorous and rich lifestyle.

This is a print screen from the opening scene of 'The Bonfire Of The Vanities'. The gold eagle is static/still whilst everything is moving. There is no pan nor movement in the shot symbolising the city never sleeps. The gold eagle symbolises greatness, power, wealth and money.

This is a print screen from the opening of 'The Bonfire Of The Vanities'.Theres a pan shot moving from once place to another. The title of the film evolves into bright lights which turn into the title of the film. This is linked to the 'Bonfire' in the title. This tells us every little detail in a film has a meaning.

The First Frames From The Film:

Animatics And Storyboards

Animatics
Animatics are storyboards which have been brought to live using pre-visual 3D animation. Animatics show us the timing and passing of each shot giving us a brief idea of what it will look like when it is filmed. This allows the animators and directors to work out any timing issues or camera shots that may not work well. The animatic may be reviewed and changed many times until the storyboard is perfected. A strength of using animatics is that it can prevent scenes in which you would have edited out of the film. One weakness of using animatics is that it is very expensive and time consuming.

Here is a link to show you how animatics look:

Storyboards
A storyboard is an animated production of a film made up of written words and images similar to a comic strip. It is the outline or skeleton of a film. It show cases the camera shots and angles which will be used, the characters positions and the direction the character is moving in pointed out by arrows. It is very important that the storyboard shows each frame which makes up the film.

This is a storyboard taken from 'The Simpsons'

'Lord Of The Rings' is such a successful and mainstream film meaning any mistakes to filming could cost valuable time and money. Peter Jackson, the director used both storyboards and animatics to plan out the film. The animatics showed the storyboard with very limited motion conveying camera movement and action accompanied by the soundtrack. This gave the animators and directors a outline of how the real film would look. It also gave them time to rethink certain ideas and to get rid of things that didn't work well. The storyboard in which they drew up gave them a basic draft of the scenes leading to the Recce where they walked through the scene experimenting with camera shots, angles and the characters movement.

Introduction To Editing

When editing my preliminary and main task, i used 'final cut', a professional editing software on imac computers. In order to start editing my shots i had to:

• Open up 'final cut', set the settings and where you're going to save it

• Connect the video camera to the computer and put it on play/edit mode. Then click file > capture your filming

• When all your filming has captured press the esc button

This is the timeline in which you place your video clips onto, arranging them to create your preliminary and main task

This is the viewing window where you can view everything you have done

Here is a print screen of the 'final cut' software.

Here is the first video i edited:

For this task i had to bring a storyboard to life by acting out all the frames using the same camera shots. I found this easy to film but hard to edit as i didn't think the transitions between shots ran smoothly. As you can see the shots look quite messy put together.

The Equipment I Used

For both my preliminary and main task, i used various pieces of equipment such as:

A Video Camera - To film my preliminary, main task, recce and diary entries

A Tripod - To make all my camera shots steady and still

A iMac Computer - To work on my blog and upload my preliminary, main task and recce onto youtube

Final Cut Software - To edit my preliminary and main task

   A Camera - I used a Lumix camera to take pictures of my props and locations in which i used to film

My Recce

For my main task I had to film a Recce of a selected scene so I could work out the suitability for the filming assessing any potential issues which may effect the real filming. I found the Recce helped a lot as It helped me to point out many problems with the scene such as:

• The location - The scene when Thomas was coming out of prison didn't fit into the mis-en-scene as we filmed it in a busy college where students were walking past making it look very unrealistic

• Camera Angles - I found that the long shot camera angles were not working as we couldn't see the characters emotions. Also we filmed the scene in one shot making it very plain and boring to watch back

• Sounds - The location in which we filmed in was very loud and busy

• Actors Movement - The actors movements were quite plain and boring as there wasn't much to do during this scene

Here is the Recce for the scene in which was taken out of my film:

Having watched back the Recce I decided to take the whole scene out of my film as i thought it was boring and not very important to the film as it didn't really have meaning. Also i found that no camera angles really worked for this scene though i experimented with many.

Recce

A Recce is when you film a rough version of a scene to work out its suitability for shooting assessing any potential issues which may effect the real filming such as:

• Lighting - The set may be too dark and so extra lights may be needed in the real shoot

• Sounds - The room in which your filming in may be hollow and so the sound may echo

• Camera angles - You may find the camera angles you are using are not working well. i.e you may want the audience to relate to the character and so close up shots may be one to consider

• Location - From looking at the Recce, you may choose to shoot your film in another location

• Mis-en-scene - You may need to use more props or different costumes to fit in the scene

• Actors Movement -  The actors/actresses movement may be restricted due to the amount of space available. Also different types of camera shots may be needed to follow the actors/actresses movement if they are combat fighting, dancing, running etc

A Recce is like a run through dress rehearsal, without it you dont have much knowledge of how the scene will turn out. The reasons why many film makers use Recces are to:

• Save Money - If you have a Recce, you will be able to test the suitability for the shooting in advance so when it comes to shooting the real film, you will be organised making it less likely for there to be mistakes costing you more money on your film

• Camera Shots - This is a chance for you to explore using a range of camera shots so you can see what shots work and don't work

Quentin Tarantino, the director of Reservoir Dogs used a Recce in his film to test how the scene would look before he filmed the real version. From his Recce he noticed many problems:

• Camera Shots - The camera shots in the Recce were too long making it boring. Also a long shot was used during the suffering of the man who had been shot, making it hard for the audience to feel any emotion as we couldn't see the man. In the real version of the film, a close up was used on the suffering man so the audience could see his suffering and feel his pain making it easier to relate emotionally

• Camera Shots - In the Recce of the toilet scene, the camera faced the mirror to make the room look big as it was really small. This was a good shot though it didn't really work because the two characters couldn't fit in the frame due to the space and movement. In the real version a long shot of the toilet was used so we could see both characters and their movement

Location & Props

In our main task we used various locations for filming and several important props:

This is the bedroom we used for a large part of our filming.

 These are the two Jesus piece chains we used to symbolise good and bad within the two brothers. Jayde wore the white Jesus piece and Thomas wore the black Jesus piece.

This is the bag we used for a large part of our filming. It was used to hold the money in in which Jayde owed Thomas.

These are the locations we used for the flash back when Jayde and Thomas are running from the police.

We placed the camera on these stairs so Jayde and Thomas could jump over it during the flashback scene

Audience Types

All films have different audience types. These audience types consist of:

'Mainstream'

This is a large audience of people who watch box office films. Mainstream has the biggest fan base audience as it is the most popular leading to these specific films selling out in the box office. Two examples of mainstream films are 'Salt' and 'Avatar'.

'Cult'

This is a small, passionate and loyal audience who follow a particular media text. For example if a film makes a sequence following on from the first part, the same audience will go and see the others. Two examples of cult films are 'Saw' and 'Paranormal Activity'.

'Subversive'

This is a audience of people who watch controversial medial texts which may offend people. For example some of these types of media texts may contain racism, sexism, religious views, violence etc. Two examples of subversive media are programs such as 'Southpark' and 'Family Guy'.

'Alternative'

This is the opposite of mainstream. Many types of these films tend to be parodys, for example 'Scary Movie' was a parody version of the mainstream film 'Scream'. Many audience members enjoy media texts that are similar to mainstream as many are hilarious. Two types of alternative films are 'Scary Movie' and 'Dance Flick'.

'Abstract'
This is a type of film in which has no narrative meaning or story line as the understanding is based on the audiences ideas. It is a form of modern art.

'RELEASE DATE' - Audience Type
If i were to make 'Release Date' into a real film, i would like it to be mainstream as mainstream have the biggest fan base and are the most popular type of films. I believe the film would be categorised as 'cult' as the story line could be a sequel in which a small loyal audience would watch.