Video Blog

George, Ramtin and myself all had a free period on Friday afternoon, so we thought it would be a good idea to meet up in a quiet area and give you a brief run through on what we've been getting up to for the past month during the production process of Black Out.

Here's a short video blog..

2nd Draft Complete!

All of the clips we shot yesterday were brilliant and worked really well with the genre. The new added parts to the storyline seemed to fit in nicely with the overall plot and make the opening a lot more exciting for the viewer to watch. We managed to get all of the clips edited today, with the help of Ramtin, and have now produced the second draft to Black Out on our Youtube account. Some of the cuts still need sharpening, and music needs to be added to the second half along with the first half, but you'll be able to see the new shots we've included.

Enjoy...

Re-Shooting and New Location!

We wanted to make the blog as interactive as possible for our viewer to find out how we made Black Out and what we got up to during the filming process behind the scenes. As you saw in the last post, there was a short video that we quickly put together on Final Cut Express in our spare time of all of our out takes, here is another video that we made to show you the change of location for the toilet scenes of our film. Sam  done a quick POV shot of the area in the station with some other footage along the way..

Hope you enjoy it!

Re-Shooting

After going over our first draft of Black Out as a group and suggesting the idea of re-shooting the second half of the film with our teacher, we thought it would be best to get it done as soon as possible whilst the cameras and tripods were available for us. With this in mind, we emailed South West Trains on Tuesday asking them for permission to film at the station today (Thursday 31st March) which they said was absolutely fine! As a group we all went down the station and managed to film all of the shots we wanted, including our newly added mobile phone shot and a new ending to make it a bit more interesting as you'll see in the second draft which will be posted tomorrow!

Here is a short out takes video of what we got up to today, and our location..

1st Draft Of Black Out

This is our first rough cut of Black Out. We still need to sort out the sound and add music to the second half as its a bit bland at the moment. After speaking to Mr Titheridge about our first draft, we've decided to re-shoot the second half of it at the station again, using the South West Trains toilets instead of the school ones, as the light in there is much better and we will be able to achieve the camera angles and continuity of the whole piece much better. The story was also suggested to be changed by our teacher as well, as there seemed to be too many unanswered questions at the end of the 2 minutes...

The storyboards are coming out, and we're re-thinking the shots we are going to include.

Editing, editing, and more editing!

All of the clips are now slowly coming together and the final outcome is looking good. We managed to get the time lapse how we wanted it producing a great effect to the opening of the film. George and Ramtin are currently in the process of making an on screen tutorial of how they managed to do the time lapse so we can upload it to the blog to show you! Editing is such a long process, but day by day we can see the 2 minutes slowly forming together, making it quite exciting to see what the end product is going to be like. We're slightly worried about the toilet scene we filmed, as we used the school toilets with a different colour door breaking the continuity of the whole second half, however we'll have to see whats said in the marking of our first draft.

Editing Black Out

As Ramtin and George are both very experienced when it comes to editing due to them producing videos on Youtube in they're spare time outside of school we decided it would be best to let them lead us through the editing process. As a group we thought it would be better to use Sony Vegas on George's laptop instead of Final Cut Express on the school Mac systems. It would save us time having to get to know the software and we have all the plug-ins we need on Vegas to make sure we get the best opening possible for our target audience. All of the clips were transferred off the camera on to George's laptop allowing other groups to take the camera and tripod whilst we started editing. The time lapse we're finding quite difficult to do, as we want to make sure it looks as good as possible, however once complete we will upload a short tutorial on how we did it! :)

Slowly but surely we're working our way to the final outcome!

Editing Software..

We have now reached the point in the production process where we need to start editing all of the footage we have  gathered over the past couple of days into our first draft, which we aim to submit as soon as possible so we can gain some feedback and class comments into what we can improve.

Sam and myself aren't very experienced at editing, as we are new to the Media subject this year. However George and Ramtin seem to know what they are doing when it comes to putting footage together on a computer system. At school we are advised to use Final Cut Express which is installed on the schools MacBook Pro laptops. Although this would be convenient for us as we'd have access to the work all the time at school, we thought we'd go with what Ramtin and George think is best, and therefore use George's own personal laptop to edit our opening.

George and Ramtin are experienced with editing programs such as Sony Vegas and Adobe After Effects (AE), this meant that they could work together along with the basic ideas from Sam and myself to experiment with different effects so that the first draft we produce is of a high standard.

We are going to start editing the 1st draft on George's laptop in the next media lesson we have together in school!

We want to create a timelapse effect using AE which we can then simply edit together using Sony Vegas.

Filming at WBS Toilets

Today we managed to get together in our free periods to shoot the toilet scene of our opening to 'Black Out'. The location seemed to be ok to use other than the bright light which was giving us a lens flare through the camera which was difficult to resolve so we had to go with it. The camera shots and variety of angles we managed to shoot today worked really well with the effect we're going for, as we managed to include a CCTV shot of Sam walking into the toilet, and a shot of him as if he was looking into a mirror, which looked effective. As we were working in a relatively small space, we couldn't all be in the toilet at once, therefore George stayed outside keeping an eye out for any students which may pop in and interrupt a shot.

Overall the filming went really well!

Filming At Riverside!

After successfully gaining permission to film at the station, we were able to commence filming on the set date of the 28th February 2011. We needed a small set of equipment on the day, such as a tripod to keep the camera steady when filming stable shots, and one small hand held HD camera. Sam, Ramtin, George and myself went to Windsor & Eton Riverside after school on Monday to film all of the clips we needed whilst referring back to our recent storyboarding. When we started to film each scene, we found that maybe some of the shots we drew up on the storyboard didn't look as good as we planned, therefore we chose some more interesting angles to demonstrate our skills with the camera! Overall the filming went really well.. We managed to film all of the shots we needed in one evening, and the location worked perfectly for the setting we were aiming at our target audience for 'Black Out'.

Sam also managed to earn some money busking which was quite interesting...

Shooting Schedule!

Here are the shooting schedules we put together to allow us to plan the amount of time we give for each scene and how we are going to structure the filming process to make editing as easy as we can! We all sat down deciding on which scenes would be best to film first and how many days we were planning to allow to film over before heading towards the editing stages. As you can see there are two seperate shooting schdules.. One for us to use at the station, and one to follow when filming in the school toilets. If all goes to plan, filming should be a simple process....I hope... :

Flicka films Shooting Schedule

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Location 2 - WBS Toilets

Our second location we chose to film at was our school toilets. We wanted to find a location which was run down and a bit grubby to match the image of our main character (A tramp), as we have already asked enough of South West Trains for permission to film at their station, we thought it was best to film back on sight, so if we have to do any re-shooting, we have easy access to the location.

As you can see in the images below, the toilets are in quite a state. Graffiti on the mirror and damaged sinks all links in with the overall theme we are aiming our final piece at!

Location 2 WBS Toilets

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Risk Assessment

When we decided to film at Windsor And Eton Riverside Station, there are many different risks and hazards that we had to consider when working in the area. We wanted to make sure that we would be safe to film on the platform, and the manager of the station would guarantee that we wouldnt cause danger or produce risk to any of their customers.

Before we went to film, we filled out this risk assesment sheet which is showed to our teacher to allow us to proceed filming our ideas in a safe environment.

Permission To Film At Windsor & Eton Riverside!

Ramtin delivered the letter by hand to the station on Monday 14th February on his way home from school, therefore leaving us waiting for an apply during half term. Luckily today the manager of the Windsor and Eton Riverside emailed us back on our Google Mail account with a clear reply saying that its fine for us to film at the station, and they'll organise staff to assist us whilst working on the platform.

I have to ring F Roberts on the morning of filming, to organise the times just as a reminder and to break the ice in our relationship between us and South West Trains.

This is great, as we can now start to film on the 28th! (:

Emailing To Confirm Location!

Click on the images above to see some parts of the conversation we had with the South West Trains Manager to gain permission to film at the station on the dates we wanted to after delivering our letter to them. I thought I'd include some of the emails we sent as this was one of the main parts of the opening to Black Out, and we worked hard trying to be granted permission to use our equipment in such a brilliant location!

Location 1 - Windsor & Eton Riverside Station

We are planning on filming the first couple of scenes in Windsor & Eton Riverside Station, as this illustrates the tramp is always on the move, with no real aim in life other than trying to earn enough money to survive each day through busking. As the station is a public place, and one of the main areas of transport for tourists in Windsor along with Central Station, we need to get permission from the manager of South West Trains to film on the platforms inside the station. I have taken a couple of pictures of the station, to show the area we are going to be filming in, so you can get an idea of what the opening is going to be like..

As you can see, there are two platforms to the station, allowing the time lapse to work effectively by having trains both enter and leave the station throughout the time we plan on filming. The platforms are also quite wide, allowing us to fit Sam against the wall with a clear distance for passengers to enter and exit the train without being disturbed.

The entrance to the station is very wide, with relatively large gates which will enable us to have a tracking shot of Sam entering the toilets just to the right of the image above. As you can see, the toilets are clearly visible through the blue arch allowing the audience to understand the plot clearly.

As the group have decided we definitely want to use Windsor & Eton Riverside Station as our opening location, we need to construct a formal letter to send to the station to gain us permission to film on the set date of Monday 28th February 2011, giving us 4 weeks to then edit the film and evaluate it before the final hand in.

South West Trains Letter

After a quick brainstorm to think about certain information we were going to include into the letter, we wrote the final piece in Monday mornings lesson with Miss Oddy, to hopefully gain us a response over the half term which means we can then start to film on the first Monday back after the school break.

The letter we sent is as follows...

                                                                                                                                 Windsor Boys School,

1 Maidenhead Road,

Windsor,

Berkshire.

SL4 5EH

South West Trains,

Windsor & Eton Riverside Station,

Datchet Road,

Windsor,

Berkshire.

SL4 1QG

14^th February 2011

Dear, Sir/Madam

We are Flicka Films, a production company from The Windsor Boys’ School currently studying Media Studies for the first year of our A-Levels. For our year 12 project we would like to shoot a partial part of our film in your Windsor & Eton Riverside Station. The filming would include two actors (school boys) between the times of 3-5:30pm on Monday 28th February 2011.

We would like to film our two actors on the train platform – we wouldn’t require them to actually go onto any of the trains on this day, but may require some footage of them walking off the train later on in our project if that’s possible. We wont be anticipating any direct contact or involvement with the train customers.

Our film crew is very small, involving one small handheld camera, no lights and no cables.

If you have any questions, please contact us on flickafilms@gmail.com or *********** to discuss any further information you may need. We would be really grateful if you could reply to us within the next week, allowing us to commence filming on the date set.

Many thanks for your time,

Jamie Calder, Sam Correa, Ramtin Totonchi, and George Holgate

Flicka Films

The Windsor Boys School.

Actors, Props & Location

The next step of planning for filming our final piece was to put together all of our actors, props and locations to allow us to be fully prepared for starting to film. We put together a sheet of A4 paper with all the details on that we needed to include on the day of filming. These were broke down in to three different sections as you can see in the image below...

As you can see, we don't have that much information and detail about the props, actors and location, as we are trying to keep the opening simple and based in one main area. We wanted to make sure that we had all of this information down on paper before going to look at each location, so we could get a rough idea of what types of props we need to make the film look realistic. Now we have finished this, and decided that we want to film at Windsor and Eton Riverside Station, we need to construct a letter to South West Trains (The running train company from Riverside) asking for permission to film at their station and if its within safety regulations.. Hopefully this should be ok!

Storyboards!

After deciding on our plot, and completing the shot list, we were able to start drawing up our storyboards. This took a while because none of us in the group are very good at drawing, so we tried our best to illustrate our thoughts through the use of a pencil! Altogether we drew up 5 storyboard sheets, all with detailed information on them about each shot we are going to film including the sound and the dialogue. As it was me drawing, I had to do a few stickmen to show the character in a crowded area, this isn't the best way to do a storyboard, but it shows our thoughts of each shot in the clearest way possible..

As you can see, the storyboard matches the shot list, and shows exactly what each shot angle of the character is going to be like, and how we're going to do it.

Below is another slideshow presentation I have put together showing you our complete storyboards which we can use when it comes to filming the final piece, giving us a clear outline of what we have to do before we get to the location...

Flicka Films Storyboards

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Idea Generation & Shot List.

After many hours of thinking and brainstorming different ideas, we now have one which we think is perfect to fit in with the psychological thriller! The first idea we were thinking of doing was something involving Sam's band, Sephiroth. However we thought this wasn't necessary and came up with the idea of a day in the life of tramp, with a twist at the end. We were going to include a part where the tramp goes to meet a drug dealer and then enters the toilets, takes the drugs and starts to panic, which ends up with him passing out on the floor. After discussing the idea with our teacher, we decided to remove the drug deal, and include another character which over looks the tramp, and ends up locking him in the toilet at the end, however the audience don't know who it is. We're trying to make the opening play on the mind as much as possible, whilst keeping it relatively simple.

The plot to the opening is as follows:

• The Tramp (Sam, Main character) is walking through train and gets off at Windsor and Eton Riverside Station.

• Once he's on the platform, he sets up his busking equipment and starts to play the guitar.

• Whilst he's playing the guitar, another character (Me) is looking over at him, constantly watching what he's doing.

• Whilst the tramps busking, there will be a background time lapse of the station moving fast as time passes by, making a nice effect showing the tramp trying to earn money.

• Once the day turns to night, the tramp packs up enters the Windsor and Eton Riverside toilets to do his business.

• Whilst in there, the other character (Me) locks the door.

• The tramp then tries to leave and realises he's locked in.

• He then starts to panic and time is passing by quickly, with different camera angles of him around the room showing him trying to escape, we show this as it is a natural reaction of a human to panic when locked in a confined space.

• The tramp then starts to become really hot and agitated, making him become angry and feel faint.

• He slips and blacks out on the toilet floor.

So we now have our plot complete, and have also finished our shot list and storyboards! Below is a presentation of our shot list, showing you what we have come up with!

Flicka Films Shot List

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Overall Target Audience Conclusion

We wanted to make sure that we got a fully concluded target audience for our film before going off to start filming the opening 2 minutes to 'Black Out'. As I done a lot of research into the film 'Inception' earlier on in my blog, I thought it would be a good idea to use Peal & Dean's Film Planner Guide to look up 'Inception' and see what type of audience that received when being shown on cinemas throughout the UK as this relates to our film really well! Our target audience questionnaire results were good as we found that many males between the ages of 16-18 would be prepared to watch a psychological thriller however I wanted to find out more information, and this is what I got..

For 'Inception' the target audience was as follows..

Sex

Male = 50%

Female = 50%

Age

15-24 = 43%

25-34 = 24%

35-44 = 14%

45+ = 19%

Class

AB = 42%

C1 = 40%

C2 = 16%

DE - 2%

After seeing these results it changed my mind on who we should aim or film at.. Since Inception attracted half to half both male and female, I think females would be prepared to watch the opening to our film as it is in the same genre, the age categories are also quite broad allowing us to include more shots and mind games with the audience as they would be able to understand whats happening. Peal & Deans website has really helped us with how we are now going to produce our film, and how we're specifically going to target the correct audience we need.

Target Audience Questionnaire Results!

After gathering all of the questionnaires back in, we sat down together as a group and looked at all of the answers our friends gave us, some of which weren't answered seriously, however we managed to get a clear outcome of what people of that age want to see...

We asked six questions in total, all specifically based around genre and what kinds of films teenagers like to watch, the questions we asked are as follows:

Above is the questionnaire that we handed out.

1.  Out of the following films, which ones would you be prepared to watch? (Please tick)

o   Inception

o   The Butterfly Effect

o   Looking For Eric

o   Terminal

o   Di Vinci Code

o   Quantum Of Solace

o   Paranormal Activity

o   Taken

     2.     What is your favourite film genre? (Please tick)

o   Comedy

o   Action/Thriller

o   Horror

o   Sci-Fi

o   Romance

o   Psychological Thriller

o   Anime

     3. Why do you like these films?

     4. What is your favourite film of all time?

     5. Are there any films you’re planning on seeing in the near future?

     6. Would you be prepared to watch our opening two minutes of a film in the genre of a psychological       

        thriller? (Please specify why you have made that decision)

The main result from the questionnaire was that the 16-18 year old male favourite genre on average was Action/Thriller, and not far behind that was Comedy. However, as we offered the psychological thriller as an option for them to tick 5 people put this as their favourite genre, which is promising! The last question of the questionnaire was whether they would be prepared to watch the opening of our film, and everyone agreed and said they would, which is great!

Overall the questionnaire was a great success! (:

Target Audience

'Black Out'

We are going to aim 'Black Out' to a small niche audience as its going to be a psychological thriller, and would not be attractive for all of the mainstream viewers. The film will get the audience thinking about what could happen next, and constantly want them to keep asking questions about why the characters are doing certain things. Our target audience would be aimed at 15 to 40 year old males. It could attract other thrill seeking females, however we think that the male viewers are going to be more attracted to our film.

After researching different types of films which are related to our opening in the psychological thriller genre, we have all looked into and found out information about certain films such as The Butterfly Effect, Di Vinci Code, and the well known Inception which we've studied in more detail. From this research we've learnt that we need to include narrative events and enigmas to keep the audience alert, interested and asking questions about why the characters are in this certain situation.

We want to make sure we choose our target audience correctly, therefore we have produced a questionnaire which has been handed around to our families and friends to make sure we have an accurate insight into the audience of our film. We printed off 20 questionnaires and gave them around to loads of people at school, as they specifically are from 16 to 18 years old.

I will do a new post once we find out the results, Exciting!

The Hermeneutic Code

After studying the Hermeneutic code in detail within the classroom through the use of three different film openings of; IRobot, The Day After Tomorrow and Saw I concluded that its going to be almost vital to have within the piece our group is making. The Hermeneutic code is more commonly called the enigma code, or narrative enigmas. Narrative enigmas are simply unanswered questions that the audience want to know the answer to throughout the film. The main definition of the code is as follows..

The Hermeneutic code - 'The parts of a story that are not fully explained. They exist as enigmas or questions that the audience wishes to be resolved.'

To keep the interest of the viewer the final truth of the film isn't revealed until the end of the story and some devices are used to keep it covered such as the snare, which is a deliberate avoidance of the truth. This teases the audience and sends them down the wrong path in thinking what the final outcome may be. Partial answers are used to reveal some but not all of the final truth to increase suspense for the audience and put them on edge which allows them to think about what could be coming next. Equivocation is a mixture of the truth and snare, making it more confusing for the viewer, as it leads them into a blurry path making it hard to predict the future of the film. Jamming is also used to suggest that the problem may be completely unsolvable therefore creating a tense viewer.

After taking notes on IRobot in the first 2 minutes, I found that it included a flashback (back story) to give the audience information about the main character (Will Smith) and to get the audience thinking about what could be coming next in the film. There were no real narrative events or development in the film opening, basically it establishes the setting and some crucial character detail.

The Day After Tomorrow created a lot of narrative events producing questions which the audience want answered after watching the opening two minutes of this film. Why did the ice break so quickly? Why are the characters drilling into the ground? Why was the least experienced worker controlling the drill? All of these questions get the audience thinking about what events could be coming next in the film, and why the characters are now in serious trouble.

Saw also created a lot of narrative events in its opening 2 minutes. As it is a horror film, its produced to make the audience always feel on edge and worry about what could potentially happen to the characters and be thrown at them. Saw's opening two minutes is giving the viewer a large amount questions which they with out a doubt want to be answered, such as; why are they in that room? How did they get there? Why is there a dead person in the centre of the room?

As our film opening is going to be in the genre of a psychological thriller, we want to make sure that we include a large amount of techniques within the Hermeneutic code to get the audience thinking about the plot of the film and why our characters are being used. We hope to produce our opening correctly within the genre as its really important to make sure the viewer stays interested and wants to keep watching.

Opening 5 Minutes To A Film In My Genre...

Inception

After watching the first opening 5 minutes to Inception, I found many different techniques in which the producer included to grab the viewers attention and keep them interested, making them want to find out more about what’s happening.

Inception opens on the beach, with the camera using a close up of the waves smashing against the rock sea edge, showing the audience that the location is somewhere hot, with quite a nice beach. The camera then cuts to the main character laying face down in the water, allowing the audience to think about what’s happened to him to get himself in that situation, this is also shown through the use of diegetic sound of the waves breaking in the sea, as he gets washed up to shore. The camera then cuts to children playing in the beach, to represent it being a safe place, telling the audience that young children are able to build sand castles making it quite confusing for the viewer to understand why the character has been washed up to shore. In the background at this point is soft non-diegetic music, slowly playing to the long duration of cutting to create suspense at the opening point of this film.

The camera then cuts to an AK 47 gun being held up against the mans back as he is laying face down, this then promotes a different mood for the viewer creating suspense about who this character could be, and why would this weapon be carried in an area with young children around. At this point the music has changed and become a lot more subtle in the background as there is a clear mood change for the audience. As the camera cuts to the soldier, revealing whom this character is, the audience now understand how the main character could be in some kind of trouble. A close up of the revealing of the pistol on the main characters back is followed by a call from the soldier, as they think he could be quite dangerous. Whilst this is going on, it gives the audience a lot to think about with what the storyline could include, is the character dead? Will he be arrested? These are the kind of points our opening will have to include to keep the viewer entertained and want to keep watching.

The camera then cuts to an establishing shot of a new setting inside an armory base with the characters being well dressed in what looks like an upper class building, making the viewer know that the man has been taken to a place in which he is going to be questioned. The camera shows the soldier giving the leader evidence of what was found on the washed up body, a gun and a small dart object. Meanwhile two soldiers have dragged the main character into the room with their arms round him as he is about to be questioned, by doing this, the viewer can clearly see the Chinese think he’s up to something and want to find out more! Once seated, there is the exchange of dialogue across the table between the master and the main character, showing the audience who is in power by making the master well dressed and at the opposite end of the table. The camera then cuts to parallel action in another room of the building where a character is trying to propose to be in a sort of plan to help one of the men out, shot reverse shot is used to emphasize the dialogue at this point, and to involve the viewer within the conversation to give them a clear understanding on what’s going on up to this point.

The camera the cuts to a close up of a watch with the time ticking effect placed in as diegetic sound, this is then followed on by an over the shoulder shot of a new character looking out of a window at burning buildings and explosions of the town he is in, making him start to panic. He tries searching the room looking for something, but all he finds are men sitting down on the chair either asleep or unconscious, allowing the viewer to decide on which they think is correct.

The opening of this film plays a lot on the mind of what’s going on as the audience need to think hard all the way throughout by taking in all information which is given to them in the first 5 minutes. This is a psychological thriller as it shows all of the key techniques in the opening to be a part of the genre I want to make ‘Black Out’ fit into along with Ramtin, Sam and George, making Inception an appropriate film to relate to. 

Youtube Channel

This is our brand new Youtube Channel! We recently decided on the idea of having our own Youtube channel to upload all of our videos on to, allowing us to link them to the blog to make it more interactive and interesting to view. Throughout our project we will be posting video blogs and diary's to our Youtube channel giving you quick and easy updates on how we're getting on! Ramtin worked his magic on photoshop and designed us a stylish but professional background to make the channel look a bit more exciting!

Dont forget to check it out.. www.youtube.com/flickafilms

Preliminary Complete!

We have now finished our preliminary task! We have also produced a quick opening to the piece to show our production company! The preliminary is posted on our youtube channel along with our opening sequence, be sure to check it out! www.youtube.com/flickafilms

The overall quality of the video isn't great at the moment because we had a bit of trouble exporting it.. However we are planning to re-do this to make it more clearer in 380p instead of 240! Here is our preliminary including 180 degree rule, match on action, and shot reverse shot...

Preliminary Production Images

Whilst filming our preliminary task, George managed to take some photos of the group in action to post onto the blog! I have gathered a few of them together and put them in a slideshow below for you to have a look at. There are a few images of us recording which look quite good, showing the angles at which Ramtin was standing to film us, and the location of the classroom which we used.

We spent a couple of hours editing the piece today, and is now ready to be posted onto our youtube channel...www.youtube.com/flickafilms

As soon as the preliminary has been uploaded to youtube i'll post the video on the blog allowing you to access it. It is roughly 30 seconds long, short but simple and demonstrates all of the techniques we needed to use in it. Final Cut Express was a bit of a challenge for Ramtin and George, as they didn't seem to enjoy editing on it as much as Sony Vegas, however, it all worked out in the end! We learnt that when importing a song onto Final Cut, you have to render it before inserting it onto the project, otherwise it simply wont play! This caused us a bit of a problem as we didn't know to do this at first, but we soon figured it out. :)

Preliminary Production Images

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Flicka Films - Preliminary Storyboard

Here are the storyboards we produced when thinking of the idea for our preliminary. As you can see in the slideshow below, they are very basic, but outline what we have to do when filming the piece to make sure it is technically correct. The storyboards contain images representing different camera angles and characters, as well as the shot numbers and sound which will be in each clip.

My drawing skills aren't brilliant I know! But I did my best to draw all of our ideas onto paper! We need to keep practising at doing this, as when it comes to filming our main task, it needs to be well structured and flow well.

Flicka Films - Preliminary Storyboard

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Preliminary Task

George, Ramtin, Sam and myself have been set the preliminary task to do over the next week to introduce us to the film making process. Our preliminary will be roughly 30 seconds long and contain the following criteria:

Match on action
Shot reverse shot
180 degree rule

The exercise we have been given must include...
Character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. We have come up with a storyboard involving a student and headmaster, where the student approaches the heads office, opens the door, and then has a conversation with him, therefore overall meeting the set criteria we have been given. We plan to have 8 shots in total, creating continuity editing all the way throughout with a sensible choice of non diegetic music and sound effects.

We started the storyboarding for our preliminary task in todays lesson, and managed to get all of our ideas down on paper so we have a guideline to work from when it comes to filming the piece. The storyboard we have produced explains each shot and camera position to allow us to cover all 3 of the technical codes in our first short clip, along with the camera shots, we also talk about what music we will be using at the start, as it needs to be royalty free, and sound effects throughout the preliminary. We will be editing the clips on Final Cut Express, installed on the Apple MacBook Pro systems at school. As Ramtin and George are quite experienced in editing, they know how to use the programme well, however Sam and myself may need a bit of tutoring! We plan on uploading all of our pieces onto the Flicka Films Youtube channel, which will be up and running shortly once we've finished the preliminary!

Filming for this task will begin next Tuesday (25th January 2011).

Name & Logo!

After all coming together thinking of many different names which we could call our production company, we thought of 'Flicka Films' as some people refer to films as 'flicks' we decided to include this within our name. Flicka Films also sounds like a realistic name of a production company, as we didn't want to decide on a name which would be laughed at. With the decided name of Flicka Films, we then wanted to create a logo which would stand out and look professional. Both George and Ramtin came up with different ideas on how we could reflect the 'F' backwards creating a nice effect of having the two F's together. George came up with the main base of the idea, which Ramtin then developed onto photoshop with his touch of magic creating our final logo!

We're really pleased with the final outcome, as it looks smart and professional.

Comparison of 3 Film Openings

In this post I am going to be looking at 3 different film openings, and comparing the similarities between them to help me with my research towards my final piece. I will do this by watching the first 2 minutes to Inception, Batman - The Dark Knight and Avatar to allow me to evaluate them individually.


Inception:
After watching the beginning opening 2 minutes of this film, I gathered lots of information about the genre and topic of the movie as straight away it sends a message to its audience that something has happened to the main character in the scene. This is done through the use of sound effects of the water, showing the man has been washed up on the beach, and the use of a hand held camera enabling the audience to connect with whats happening. With the soldier being armed with large gun in one of the main shots of the opening scene, it tells the viewer that this could potentially be a follow on from a previous event. The actor at the begininng of this film shows a large sense of confusion when being washed up on the beach, telling the audience that he seems uneasy in the area he is in and questions himself to what he is doing. The psychological genre is illustrated well right from the opening scene through the use of Mise-En-Scene and the actor.  I came to the conclusion that the film was action packed right from the first 2 minutes of watching it. Later on in my blog I will refer back to inception, creating a more detailed post on the film including camera shots, Mise-En-Scene and editing to relate the film in more depth to our 2 minute opening, as this is the film we are trying to base ours around.

Batman - The Dark Knight:
When watching the opening scene to Batman, I could tell straight away that the film was going to be action packed with both violence and chaos due to the camera shots and acting being quick and precise. At the beginning, the characters are breaking out of a tall building using guns, and high technology, as well as having their faces covered with an unusual looking mask. The use of all of these props shows the audience that the film is going to be actin packed and alarmed due to the characters being quite distinctive. As 'The Dark Knight' continues, theres parallel action showing the viewer that two things are happening at the same time, a group are robbing a bank, and the other members of the team are disabling security systems. The intense non-diegetic music running in the background of the action throughout the build up to the bank robbery creates suspense for the audience as they want to know whats going to happen next, leaving them with questions that need to be answered at this point of the film. When the two characters are disabling the security systems, one of them shoots the other, telling the audience that now something is going to happen in the film as they were meant to be working together, this adds to the psychological thriller genre as this wasn't expected. Possibly one of the most interesting parts of the opening 5 minutes was when the bank robbery gets turned around onto the robbers as the manager of the bank shoots one of them with his shotgun. The audience at this point in time would be stunned by the way the manager has the ability to start ruling the main action of the film, as there is only one of him and a gang of robbers. As the opening proceeds, the robbers one by one are slowly getting shot by each other, as it seems for the audience that they all want the money by themselves, throughout each scene to the point where the bus arrives another member of the robbing gang is killed, leaving the audience wanting to know why this is the case. The point where one of the well known - main characters of the filmed is unmasked (The Joker) reveals that the plot is clearly understandable for the first 5 minutes to the audience as they know he is the enemy in the film. The first 5 minutes show the audience Batman is going to be based around action and crime, giving them a clear insight into what it is still to come in the rest of the film. The dialogue clearly outlined what the storyline is at the time of action through the use of mise-en-scene and location.

Avatar:
I found the first 2 minutes of Avatar very different to the other 2 films I have looked at. Avatar went for a different approach and had a narrator running all the way throughout the beginning, telling the story of the main characters past as he has just been released from a scientific hospital in space, this has been used for Avatar to get the audience interested straight away with the storyline and relate them to how the character is feeling at this moment. Psychological thrillers need to get the audience involved and produce unanswered questions throughout the film to allow the audience to stay alert and attentive all the way through. The storyline is being told to the audience to engage them with the film, however, the genre is clearly identified through the use of location, sound effects and different camera shots to represent it as a Sci-Fi Action Film. The way the characters are floating around the space hospital produces questions that the audience need aswered.. Where are they? What are they doing? and Why are they there? this all relates to how we want to aim the beginning of our film. The director of the Avatar uses a flashback on the main characters life to where his brother died, allowing us to find out more about why he is in hospital and what exactly they are doing. The narrator in the opening two minutes allows the camera to back up the dialogue and relate to what he is saying, making it easy to understand and follow whats happening, this could be used within 'Black Out' for people to understand a bit more about whats going on and keep action flowing constantly. As the film continues more of the story starts to unwind as we now know he accepted the offer of taking over his dead brothers contract and joining the army, as the camera cuts to him inside a travelling system with all of the other army colleagues, sending the audience a message that he's prepared to take risks as it is a dangerous job. This film relates to the others by it being involved with action right from the beginning, as it is reflecting back on the past allowing the viewer to have a clear idea into whats going to happen next.

Summary:
Overall all three films follow the same pattern of making their audience involved with action and the storyline right from the beginning. In all of the films, the viewer has something to think about, and is given the opportunity to understand the characters and what is happening. All of the films show parts of the story line in the opening scene, grabbing the attention of the viewer and leading on to the rest of the film. Inception, Batman and Avatar are all based around new technology and action, making them enjoyable films to watch.

Who I am..

Hi I'm Jamie, I am in year 12 doing the first year of my A-levels in Media Studies, Product Design and AGCE ICT. Throughout my blog I will be uploading posts commenting on the film production process working towards a final piece of complete coursework, which will be submitted at the end of the year. I enjoy Media a great deal, and I'm aiming for a high grade in both my coursework and exam.


For my coursework I have decided to work in a group with George H, Ramtin T and Sam C. We are currently deciding on a name for the production group and undertaking research which will help us decide on a genre and topic for our 2 minute opening piece to a film.