Animatic

For our coursework we have to produce the title sequence and opening two minutes to a film that we have written, filmed, edited and produced. I drew this storyboard and added the captions in this animatic I produced using iMovie, with the help again of my working partner Caledonia. We photographed the drawing and uploaded them to use in this short clip. I hope it makes sense the drawings are not too hard to understand.

Ideas & Treatment - Outline to the Story of My Filming Coursework - The Dark

IDEAS

            - Adventure

                        - Good Story Line                                         - Could be achievable

                        - Interesting Location                                    - Hard to achieve

                        - Costume (Relation to Location)                  - Hard to achieve, expense

           

- Action

                        - Large Budget (Stunts & Chases)                        - Not achievable

                        - Fast Pace                                                            - Achievable, editing

                        - Good vs Bad                                                      - Achievable, easy storyline

           

- Crime/Gangster

                        - Costumes                                                       - Hard to achieve, expense

                        - Stunts & Fights                                              - Not achievable, expense & danger

                        - Mystery                                                         - Achievable, storyline

- Dark/Sinister (Film Noir)                              - Achievable, shooting & editing

           

- Comedy

                        - Light Hearted Plot                                  - Achievable, storyline

                        - Funny                                                     - Extremely hard to achieve, script           

           

- Horror

                        - Fright/Scare/Fear                                              - Achievable, storyline

                        - Mystery                                                            - Achievable, storyline

                        - Low Budget                                                     - Very achievable

- (Special effect may be expensive)                    - Not achievable, not necessary

           

- Drama

                        - Realistic Characters                                    - Hard to achieve, good actors

                        - Good Storyline                                           - Could be achievable, time

- Sci-Fi

            - Special Effects                                            - Not achievable, expense

            - Futuristic/Fantasy Location                        - Not achievable, expense

Due to achievability, availability and time consumption the genre we are going to go down the route of will be Horror. This is because of the low budget and easy ability to create a storyline that will scare or fright the audience as well as provoking questions that will leave the audience wanting more.

TREATMENT

I am working with Caledonia Quigley to produce our title sequence and opening scenes to the coursework filming project. our film is titled "The Dark" which we have vaguely based on the book entitled with the same name.

Our film is set around a babysitter who has strange thing happen to her and the audience is not quite sure why. our first scenes show her going to the house to babysit but it set in and eerie manner. After she has checked the baby and is then watching TV, these loud noises start to occur, she ignores them at first but then as they become louder she begins to panic. After ensuring her safety by locking the door she climbs the stairs again to check the baby. However this time the baby is not in the cot.

We have decided to make a brief plan as to what would happen later on in our film if we were to continue and produce the whole thing. After she does not see the baby where it was before she starts to panic but chooses to ignore it. Later when checking the third time the baby is replaced and all is fine. However strange unexplainable things happen throughout this girl’s life, similar to this, which end in twisted ending that will explain all.

We are hoping to film this soon, in one of our houses, as it is mainly set indoors. However this will all needed to be filmed at night, due the ‘dark’ theme and the fact it is a babysitting based film, which is usually performed in the evening/night. The darkness will also have a great effect on the genre, Thriller/Horror, as these are dark and eerie based themes. 

Preliminary Task

This is my preliminary exercise, which I filmed, edited and stared in, with the help of my working partner Caledonia. In this task we had to film a conversation between two people as well as showing camera and editing skills like, walking through a door, and using shot, reverse shot in the filming of the conversation. This will be used as part of our coursework to show some of our ability. I am not completely convinced with our acting skills, however this is marked on our filming and editing skills, which, I must say, I am not displeased with.

The Black Hole - Film

Garage Band Lesson

In our lesson on garage band I learnt about how music is used in films to add to the complete effect a film has on its viewer. I learnt that music is used to create an atmosphere or just add to compliment movement. For example music can create dramatic tension by the use of one instrument, a single drum beating as an example. In this lesson we drew some graphs to represent what is going on in the music in correlation with the film. Along the x axis would be the time of the film, and the y axis would be the volume of the music, in my idea of the graph, you could change the y axis to pitch but I will stick me volume. So the total graph length is the total time of the film including the highest peeks to be the loudest points in the music and the lower one the quieter parts.

One film I have looked at to discuss its music in relation to the film is: The Black Hole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5_Msrdg3Hk

This short film would not have a very interesting music time graph however it can help us to understand how it works. When the noise of the photocopier is being used the graph would have a small raise in the it. This is continuous throughout the film so the graph would have little bumps for the beep all the way through. Although some people would not say this is music its continuous beat creates the effect of music however it is just one noise repeated. Another noise we hear often through this short film is the noise when the “black hole” is being used, the humming. This is then set in our minds when the hole is used, so we may not even have to see the hole being used but hear the sound and we will know what is happening. Toward the end move and more is happening so the noise level is raised, so our graph will start to look as if it is climaxing. And this is where it finishes, at the peek of the climax, the loudest point of this film is the point of which it ends.

Not many films do this, most short films will climax in the middle and then gradually fall back to a normal level to finish on. But I believe for this film the music is well suited and creates an atmosphere that I believe was meant to be portrayed in this piece.

What have I learnt on iMovie?

What have I learnt on iMovie? Well I had never used iMovie before I started my Media course, so I have learnt quite a lot! First I have learnt how to upload a film clip. This may seem really straight forward but I can be quite complicated for a first time user. After getting all my clips on screen, I then learnt how to view my videos and able to select which clips to use and which clips not to in a new project. After this I was shown how to crop and cut my shots, which was extremely straight forward compared with the uploading. After editing my clips to the standard I wanted, I added the finishing touches like credits and an title opening. I then saved my project and copied my video onto my memory stick.

Breakfast Club Filming

In one of our latest lessons we looked at a sequence from the film “The Breakfast Club”. the sequence we looked at involved meeting the characters and them arriving at school to complete their unwanted detention on a Saturday morning. Here, by body language and a small amount of dialogue, we find out different characters behaviour and a feel for their attitudes, so we had to try and portray this in our piece too. I took the role, with a few others, as the director. This was a hard task as we had the final say and the final look was more or less down to us. However I think we managed to pull it off. Although we didn’t have the same location we tried to create a similar look to the layout of the classroom to the film.

On of the key pieces of information I learned complete ling this task was the fact that it takes a long time to film a small section. This is created by allowing seconds before and after each shot to edit with, and how many times a shot has to be shot to get the desired effect. I also learnt that although you have to work as a team, as it would be extremely hard to produce yourself, the direct has to have the final say to get the job done. This can mean saying things which may seem bossy, and at school, to your friends, as well as keeping the whole production working to actually do what you came there to do.