research and planning - video screen shot of our group convo on actors

here on our group chat we agreed and got our actors together confirming they were willing to act.

research and planning - video task 4

This is the lesson were we evaluated our feedback, changed our treatment were we felt needed to be improved, as well as upload our videos to our blog

research and planning - video FEEDBACK ON THE GROUP PITCH

We presented our pitch to the class and gained useful feedback.

The class agreed with most of our ideas they said it is something they would watch

we discussed with the group and they said what will our sound effects be....they gave us the idea of using ambient sounds such as leaves, gun shots, loading gun.

They asked if it was achievable or complicated, we showed them our ideas and how simple we wanted to produce, and therefore we think that it is achievable.

They also talked about the use of blackmailing the hitman, they said we could cut that bit out and have the hitman fighting his inner conscience.

I think i agree on this too, i think it drifts the plot away.

with most votes on internal struggle they also said that we could have a voice over portraying the character.

However we feel that our scriptive and plans are good and that we will stick with most of our ideas as the feedback we mostly got were positive. Although we had other ideas we think that by adding those ideas it will slightly drift the plot to a different direction therefore stick to our initial ideas but we agreed that the use of ambient sound effects could develop our production and make it realistic.

research and planning - video group treatment pitch

research and planning - video treatment lesson

group talk and feedback on the pitches everyone was made to do this task was beneficial as it allowed everyone's ideas to be shared as well as the feedback being valued.

research and planning - video Treatment - 15th september

research and planning - video VICTIM - Short Horror Film (Based on Slender Man) third case study

research and planning - video knowing too much - second short film case study

Research and Planning - video CLOSED DOORS (2011) short film case study one

Short film analysis of – Closed doors (2011)

Closed doors- A dark thriller written & directed by James Button (Orpheus, Rocket Boys)
Starring: Connor Jenkins, Luciana West & Craig Beedim
Shot by Kristaps Kazaks of galjafilms (Orpheus, Rocket Boys)
Produced by Peter Wolf. Sound by Liam Bauckham.

I have chosen to look at this film as I intend to produce a similar short film based on this genre which is thriller/horror, this short film consists of some elements that I could consider using in my production.

Closed doors consists of a linear structure as from the start of the scene we follow that one character throughout the film till the end. The structure does consist of a flashback.

The film is shot in live action

The film plot is about a student hearing noises from the next room while working and so he goes next door to investigate with unexpected consequences. The characters are based around the same age all categorized as students. You can say that the main character who we follow is more educated neat looking, whereas the other two boy and girl sort of are presented differently, this is shown by their outfit.

                                                                

Camera techniques:

Throughout the short film there are many techniques that are used which establish he scene such as

: Long shot - the main character standing in the all way at a long distance

: Medium close up- of all three characters, used quite oftenly 

: Extreme close up- of the women bleeding from her nose.

: Over the shoulder shot - of when both male characters are speaking to each other

: Shot reverse shot -when there is conversation going on between all characters. 

Editing

: There is an order of shot starting  with the main character and end with the same character (privileged)

: Cutting shots to tell a narrative story – continuity which helps the viewer make sense of action by implying 

 spatial relationships and ensuring a smooth flow form shot to shot. This creates realism which makes editing invisible so the action appears real rather than constructed.

: Match on action – we see the character move in one shot having continuous movement. 

: Shot reverse shot – having a conversation which makes it clear of who the character is speaking to.

Mise en scene:

Location: the location is set in a block of flats where there is student accommodation.

Lightning: the lighting plays a big part in this short film. Especially the use of dark colours to portray a 

suspense effect. Being a thriller film it is important to follow the codes and conventions therefore using dark colours relates to violence.

Props: the costume used in this film is very simple and casual, the main character wears casual clothes which looks normal for a student whereas the other two we see the other two male and female in black clothing representing a rough class. The use of glass to hear through the walls so that we can listen closer to the noises, the bottle used in a fight between the two male characters. Also the use of laptop used by the main character portrays he may still be in education due t the fact he is in a student hall. 

Make up: not much make up is used, however the use of blood dropping from the girls nose as well as the male figure that is beaten up by the main character during the fight.

Sound:  Sound used in this film has a great use especially being a thriller movie. The use of sound diegetic sound such as the dramatic sound effects that lead to suspense keeping the viewer engaged. Which include the use of echoes, which gives a hollow effect, which leads the scene on. Also the use of heart beat where everything slows down, which creates real tension emphasising fear of the character. The sound effects used in this film is really good and I plan to do the same, throughout the film through the use of sound effects the feeling of tension stays put throughout the film which is ideal for a thriller movie.

Target audience:

The ages targeted is around 17-24, those that are currently studying, the film uses students or young age characters simply portraying a student’s life as we see the main character studying/ doing some work.

What ideas can you take to help you in your own short film?

I could utilize various things from this short film as I plan to make one of a comparable kind, however i would not take any plans from the story yet the way this short film figured out how to make anticipation by taking a gander at the altering and sound impacts in subtle element and take a gander at the why the short film is shot, for example, by utilizing low lighting.

Narrative: 

within this sequence there is different elements of telling the story, for instance looking at genre we arent quite sure at the beginning of what the genre is about but the sound effects give an insight towards horror/thriller.

in this film i think that this is an open structure as we do not know most of the times how the ending will be therefore, i would say it has a minor ending. 

The plot consists of enigma where, there is a puzzle for us to solve for example figure out how the ending will be or what will happen next. 

characters that are functioned in this plot are different, the main is wearing casual and the other looks wild. 

Location set is in a student accommodation which is one of the reason it is an open structure. 

there is sort of plots that lead to suspense and create a tense scene due to sound effects. 

reflect - practice task

Reflecting on our first task of which we had to record a short film as a group, i can say that what i learnt from our first shooting is that we did not get enough shots by all means the clips were too short to illustrate and therefore could not work enough with it. A major error that occurred was pressing the record button which led to a few shots not being recorded. we also did not have a tripod which led to the shots being unbalanced. the quality of the sound was also not great as it was not clear due to the heavy wind in the background.

However, the positives that we achieved from this task was good communication, we worked together and negotiated well. Our focus was great the camera shots were clear and visible. our location set was in a good place. We took a variety of shots at different angles but felt we could have done more. Our acting was also poor which we need to work on, I would say that we need to be more enthusiastic

Our editing was good we managed to gather our video shots and put them in order  but felt as we lacked in more shots being taken there wasn't much to work with.  we all worked independently which shows we are a good team working group and looking back at our pros and cons we can improve on our final shooting.

teaser of making a short film produced in our group

scheduling

DSLR CAMERA INDUCTION

Here is the following notes i had gathered from the induction from using the DSLR camera

- DSLR is mainly used for still camera shots and video recording

- The on button tells us that it is on picture mode which is known as other ( normal mode)

-Shutter speed- If you increase the shutter speed, the exposure decreases and the photo will turn out darker

: If you decrease the shutter speed, the exposure value increases and the photo will turn out to be brighter

: If you increase the lens aperture, the exposure increases and the photo will be brighter. 

: if you decrease the lens of aperture, the exposure decreases and the photo will be darker. 

: If you increase ISO SENSITIVITY, the exposure value increases and the photo will be brighter

: If you decrease the ISO SENSITIVITY, the exposure value decreases and the photo will turn out to be darker. 

ISO number the lower the better the image

white balance is usually telling the camera to make the colours of the image to be more natural 

fixed lens are zoomed in.