AS Prelim

 
Our 40 second sequence is called Chloe and is about two teachers complaining about a student who is sitting in the detention with them, unknown to the teachers.

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

When planning and shooting our sequences, we worked in groups of 4 and my group choose to delegate planning roles amongst the members of the group, in order to finish all the required planning as quickly as possible. However, when editing we worked in pairs that were formed out of our original groups of 4.

My Group

Group Members:

• Ella - Either directed or filmed most of our shots and also invented the story
• Olamide - Acted the grumpy teacher and was involved in production
• Phoebe - My editing partner, acted Chloe and was involved in production

Me Filming Some Cutaway Footage

During the planning stage I was delegated the room planning and set-up planning shots. For this I had to draw a layout of how we wanted the room to be, as well as where our camera would fit within the geographical space of the room. I also contributed in some of planning activities that we did as a whole group, such as the creation of our characters and story. When shooting, it was the job of whoever wasn't acting, to do the filming and directing of that shot. We also made sure that everyone had a chance to be involved in the production elements of our sequence, for example I shot the first few shots of the sequence, in the corridor outside of the main location. Finally whilst editing, Phoebe and I made sure to equally designate both the physical editing, as well as decision making between the both of us.

2. How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?

When planning the sequence, we had to take many different theories into account, such as the 180 and 30 degree rules, shot-reverse-shot and the use of mastershots, as well as other details prescribed in the brief. 
These include:

• Eye line matches must be included
• The use of a variety of shot types
• Match on action must be demonstrated
• A person must enter a room and share dialogue with another person
• The two people must be seated opposite each other

A couple of good examples of these theories being used in our sequence include shots 1-4, where we used match on action as Olamide walks along the corridor and through the door. These shots were cut carefully so as to maintain a strong narrative flow, such as matching the timing of Olamide's left foot hitting the ground between shot 1 and 2, or the timing of Olamide opening the door in shots 3 and 4. We also chose to include a reaction shot as shot 5, so as to signify that the other teacher had reacted to Olamide's entrance, as you would in real life, however it seemed unusual to not hear the sound of the door closing. To rectify this, we included the sound of the door closing from the mastershot, over this shot to uphold our narrative flow. I believe we achieved all of the targets set in our brief, atleast once. In order to meet all these targets, we had to plan our sequences very closely using a range of processes like:

Our Shoot Board

• Character/casting/prop list grids
• Scripts
• Walkthroughs
• Location floor plans
• Storyboard

We also had to work efficiently as a team, however we also had to communicate effectively with the other people working in the same building as us. For example, Group 1 were also shooting at the same time as us and also wanted to use the same corridor as us, so we had to be intelligent with our timetabling of shots so as to not interfere with each other's shooting.

3. What technology did you use to complete the task and how did you use it?

Whilst shooting we were equiped with a range of technology to allow us to complete the task, as our camera we used a Canon HFG30 set on auto settings due to time constraints and mounted on the hotshoe above it we used a shotgun microphone to capture clearer audio than the inbuilt mic of the camera would allow. This was all mounted on a tripod to allow us to make smooth pans, as well as keep the camera steady. In order to make sure the camera was level, we used a spirit level built into tripod ball head. Finally whilst shooting, we also used a clapper board in order to make it easier for us whilst editing, as we could identify the shot and take far quicker in our rushes.

Me at the Edit Suite

For editing we used dual monitor editing workstations, equiped with 16gb of memory and intel i7 processors, to edit within Premiere Pro CS5. We used the primary monitor for the timeline, source monitor, effect panel, footage input panel, etc. and the secondary monitor allowed us to preview our edited sequences in a full screen format. We used linear editing techniques to bring our sequences together and try to maintain match on action. Firstly we renamed all our shots in our rushes folder to their shot and take numbers, we then used the source monitor to mark in and out points on our clips. Finally, we dragged our chosen takes into the timeline to do more fine editing with the razor and grab tools. We also used the pen tool to mark key frames on the audio tracks, to allow us to adjust the audio levels through out the sequence.

4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

As we were filming in a school, we had to take the workings of the school into account when planning what order to shoot the shots in. For example, at the end of each period (every 40 mins) a loud bell would ring in order to signify the end of a lesson. Therefore, we had to make sure we were not filming at this time as any audio we had would be ruined in these shots. We were also sharing the building with other members of the school and therefore when shooting outside of the main location, we had to make sure we would not be interupting anyone else and more importantly nobody would interupt us. This was often as easy to fix as checking that the space was free before we used it.

The Classroom we shot in

The room we filmed in also posed some small limitations which meant we couldn't go completely overboard with our ideas. For example:

• Moving furniture around would take up time, that we already didn't have lots and lots of
• If we wanted to remove furniture it had to go somewhere
• We would not have full control over the lighting of the shots
• The music department was located directly above us, so they could sometimes be heard



Location Floor Plan

• Other members of the school might need to come into the room for short periods of time

 However, I think that the room as a whole was not too difficult to work in, once you acknowleged the slight limitations it offered. Some of these limitations were also easy to overcome, such as the fact that we found a spare room which nobody was using in the media department, that allowed us to move our unneccesary furniture into.

Finally, when editing we had to be flexible to stray away from our original storyboard, as some shots would often appear better inside our heads or drawn in a storyboard, than they actually would. For example, originally shot 2 was meant to be a close-up of Olamide's hand opening the door and shot 3 was meant to be her walking into the room. However, we felt the original shot 2 did not very aesthetically pleasing, but it also left shot 1 dragging on for too long, so we added in a different shot not on the storyboard, which was the low angle shot of feet, to break up Olamide's approach to the door.

5. How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well and with hindsight, what would you improve or do differently?

I think that as a whole, our sequence was very succesful, however there are still gaps in our continuity that came up from lapses in acting, shooting and editing prowess, that can be learnt from. However, in terms of meeting the brief, I believe we were entirely succesful, for example:

• Match on action is demonstrated in shots 1 to 4
• Shot-reverse-shot is demonstarted in shots 9 to 11
• The 180 degree rule was observed in shots 7 to 11
• Eyeline matches were achieved in shots 7 to 11
• Our mastershot was used in shots 4 and 6

Our Mastershot

 We also used a range of shot types for effect and to maintain continuity. The low angle ECU of Olamide's feet in shot 2 was used to break up Olamide's action of going to the door, as well as "animating" the action and making it seem more real by getting the audience closer to the action, as well as offering a more aesthetically pleasing experience to the opening of the sequence. Where as the wide angle of the mastershot allows the audience to see more geographical space and get a better sense of setting and where the characters actually are. It also allowed us to have a point of reference to which the various cutaway shots could be timed to or to uphold narrative flow, such as the addition of the sound of the door closing to the reaction shot.

However, as mentioned previously, our sequence was not perfect. Some errors found our sequence include:

•  Poor framing of shot 6 cuts the top of Olamide's head off
• The cut between shot 6 and 7 means that Olamide is never seen fully sitting down, breaking continuity
• In shot 6 Olamide is seen holding books, by shot 7 they are on the desk
• In shot 7, Olamide seems to start talking very quickly out of nowhere
• The audio levels and tonality through out the conversation fluctuates alot, as the actors were not always able to talk directly towards the microphone
•  The OTS shots include far too much of the person's shoulder and not enough of the subject
• The reveal-of-chloe shot's pan does not come to a smooth stop and jerks back towards the left at the very end

End of Shot 6

Start of Shot 7

 In hindsight, many of these issues could have been resolved with better planning and shooting techniques. For example, the poor framing of shot 6 and the OTS shots could have been easily avoided by simply taking a second and asking where the shot was perfectly framed and reviewing footage mid-shoot. The awkward cut between shot 6 and shot 7 occured, as in the unedited shot 6 Olamide starts tlaking before she sits down and in shot 7 she starts after she is seated. This meant that Phoebe and I as editors had to decide whether we cared more about having seamless audio or seamless visuals. We decided the slight jump in visuals was less distracting than a odd combination of audio and thus cut the action short by about a second in shot 6. This could have been avoided by more careful planning of the shots and having someone watch out for simple continuity errors during shooting, such as these.
 
6. What have you learnt from completing this task? Look ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?

During the preliminary task I have learnt a range of shooting and editing techniques, as well as begun to understand the practical applications of continuity theories. My top 3 things I have learnt during the prelim are:

• The importance of someone on shoot looking out for continuity errors
• The importance of planning action in a sequence down to fine details
• The applications of continuity theories when editing ie. match-on-action

 The combination of both planning action to a finer degree of accuracy, as well as having a designated "continuity manager" will mean that in my future productions I am less likely to have a major continuity error, such as that found in shot 6 of my prelim. Without this error, there would have been no awkard cut between shot 6 and shot 7, which in my opinion completely ruined the flow of the sequence. This is something I would really like to avoid in my future productions. I also think that applying the editing techniques that we learnt about in class has meant that I have a better understanding of what is required from the shoot, in order to have a smoother editing experience in my future productions.

My Group as we Finished our Prelim

Our next major piece of coursework will be to produce a 2 minute opening sequence for a film. I believe that many of the lessons I learnt from the prelim are going to be very relevant to the opening sequence task, as again I will be striving to achieve perfect continuity and establish a narrative flow, through the use of a range of continuity techniques, such as match on action, eyeline matches, etc. As mentioned previously, I think it will be very beneficial for our sequence, to have a person who will be designated to watching for obvious continuity errors and who would make sure that action in one shot, would match the action in another shot. I also think our experience of editing a sequence to achieve continuity will guide us to make correct decisions around the shooting of our sequence, for example including audio cues that may not be part of what is on screen, but rather from what the audience would be expecting to be going on off screen, such as footsteps, door creaks, traffic noises, etc.

However, overall I am very happy with the result of our preliminary exercise and can't wait to get on to our opening sequence in the coming months.

Continuity Task 2 (BLK)

My sequence begins at the start of the clip and ends at 1:57 and is taken from the film "A Bridge Too Far" It involves 3 main characters, an overwhelmed doctor, a half dead officer and a staff sergeant played by James Caan. In order to maintain the narrative flow of the sequence, many continuity techniques are employed, such as a variety of shot types, the 180 degree rule, shot-reverse-shot, etc.
To begin with, James Caan is seen driving his Jeep into the army base using an ELS. This immediately establishes the setting of the sequence as well as two of our main characters, the half dead officer and the sergeant. This shot cuts to a shot of the sergeant lifting the officer and walking off frame. The start of this shot and the end of the previous shot are cut in such a manner that "match on action" is achieved, by synchronizing the closing events of the previous shot with the start of this shot. Towards the end of the opening 30 seconds, camera movement is used track James Caan as approaches and then enters the medical tent. This gives the audience a greater sense of movement towards the tent and because the shot is framed as a slightly low angle, OTS it attempts to bring the audience into the events of the narrative. Cutaways of James Caan's reaction and the corpses are used to pin-point exactly what the doctor means by "put him down" ie. The doctor thinks the officer is dead.
When James Caan enters the tent, the camera cuts to a wide angle mastershot, which gives the audience a good sense of the geographical space that exists in the tent, as well as identifying key iconography of a doctor's tent such as the medical instruments and operating table. This shot tracks backwards as James Caan gets closer to the camera, in order to keep the argument of the doctor and James Caan focused in the center of the frame. The mid shot used allows the viewer to see a lot of the inside of the tent, without detracting from the importance of the emotion found in the dispute. This shot has a long duration and pans slightly with the Doctor's movements which obeys the 30 degree rule, as changing shot to re-frame for the doctor, would very likely need little change in the angle of the shot. This shot then slowly moves and zooms in over the doctor's shoulder to frame James Caan in an OTS, for the main action of the sequence as James Caan pulls a gun on the doctor. The OTS allows both people to be seen in the same geographical space, whilst focusing on only one of them.

Master Shot

A shot-reverse shot is now used as it lets the audience see the facial expressions of both parties present in the dispute. This is further heightened by the close-ups used in the shot-reverse-shot which let the audience see the complete facial expressions of both actors, which is very effective as builds great tension. This tension is further built by the quietening of the background sounds, which were more prominent earlier in the sequence. This is a very clear indication to the audience of the importance of the following scene. This eventually cuts to the original mastershot, which had tracked into an OTS. This shot tracks backwards as James Caan lowers his gun, to illustrate the loosening of tension in the scene to the audience. Through out the entirety of the shots within the medical tent, the camera does not go behind the back of the Doctor, which would have broken the 180 degree rule, by putting James Caan on the left and the Doctor on the right.

Evaluation of AOTT Activity (DYM)

Our film called "phobia" is about possessed dolls hidden through out a haunted house, who come to life and wreak havoc on any visitors they recieve. In our opening it was very important for us to create a strong mise-en-scene, giving rise to the dark imagery. There is no real sequence of events present in our opening, only a collection of symbolic and disturbing images that begin to get the audience in the right frame of mind for the film. These images are often key signifiers of the horror genre and more specifically the specific sub-set of haunted house horror. We also introduce the dolls as characters alongside industry information, such as the production crew and the film's title. These include the director, producer, writer and musical composer of the film. The dolls are only partially shown and you cannot see the entirity of their face, due to their position and dark surroundings, which leaves an air of enigma surrounding them as characters.The film's title "phobia" could stem from phobia's definition being an irrational fear. This could suggest that being scared of these dolls is entirely irrational and one would not expect them to be so dangerous, yet in actuality they are actively seeking prey to kill.

I think that the audience would be left feeling unsettled by the opening of our film, as well as genuine intrigue about who the characters of the film are. Thus far, alot of information surrounding the characters and setting have been withheld to keep the audience guessing and also make it easier to scare the audience, as a good horror film should. By not having any signifier that the dolls are the main character, they are essentially hidden in plain sight. However, it is still important to atleast show the main character in the opening sequence, as well as titles and signifiers of the genre, even if they are not identified as such. Although the audience do not yet understand the dolls are the main character, they will still be able to recognise them later in the narrative from the opening sequence, giving the narrative a more concrete flow. The title is vitally important in the opening as it suggests a genre for the film, as well as clarifying to the audience that they are about to watch the film they actually wanted to watch. This is important as you do not want members of the audience doubting that the film is indeed the one they wanted to watch 10 minutes into their viewing, you just want them to be seated and watching and enjoying the film. Finally, key signifiers of the genre are included in the grid, such as the key hole or female sillhouette, in order to make it explicitly clear to the audience what genre of film they are watching, so as to make sure the "correct" audience watch your film and give it a positive reviewing and thus possibly recommend it to their friends.

Ultimately I believe my group and I created an effective film opening and represented it well within the grid. There is an exceptionally strong sense of genre and tone establish in the opening, with subtle hints at the characters, setting and finer themes. As the shots are intended to be somewhat abstract, I would not be too worried if the audience were not entirely sure what they were watching, however it cannot be too confusing or the audience would stop watching altogether. So when editing great care would be taken so as to prevent this from happening, through careful choice of transitions and music. That said, as a grid it may be difficult to see where the story is going, as it is a static medium where no moving images or transitions are shown.k

Film Opening Analysis and AOTT Research (DYM)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

This film is set in 70's Vietnam during the war and is drama critical of the Vietnam war. The film takes place over several days, in which our main hero is tasked with finding and killing a lunatic US general hidden in the woods called Kurtz. 

The opening sequence begins with the sound of distant helicopter blades, before fading up from black to an ELS of the Jungle with helicopter's flying in the foreground. Suddenly the forest is engulfed in Napalm, as the vocals chime in to a mellow melody. Images of our hero lying on his back, his personal artifacts, and propeller blades are superimposed on panning footage of a Jungle being burnt to cinders for the rest of the opening sequence. This is drawn to a close when our hero awakes from his slumber and peers out of the blinds. None of these shots appear to be directly linked, apart from the solider to his belongings, however all of these shots have strong connotations of the conflict in Vietnam. These shots do not intend to tell a story, but rather set the scene in which the narrative will take place. These shots also give the viewer some time to relax and begin to focus on the film, forgetting about any previous stress factors that are irelevant to their screening of the film. Despite all the events being connected by their iconography of the Vietnam conflict, they are otherwise unrelated and give very little away about the coming narrative, with only the setting, time and main character being revealed. His physical appearance as well as ocupation as a soldier are established within the opening sequence, but no other information, such as his name or personality have been revealed to the viewer. This leaves the viewer with more questions than answers about the main character and have them wondering what role he will play in the narrative. 

The opening sequence to Apocalypse Now is evidence that the audience do not need to learn very much in the opening sequence of a film, instead a firm sense of mood is all that is really required and extra information such as time, character and setting can be revealed as the director sees fit. The abstract motifs painted by this opening sequence do not give much information away, but instead create an unsettled mood which is sustained for the entirity of the film, which tells you just as much about the motives behind the film, as the story does itself. 

The Interview(2014)

In stark contrast to the opening sequence of Apocalypse Now, The Interview uses bright stylised graphics to establish both the setting and tone for the coming film, just as Apocalypse Now used superimposed footage. Both films chose to establish the same facts about the film in the beginning, however The Interview decides to withold all information regarding the characters whereas Apocalypse Now chooses to disclose the appearance and occupation of one character. I think this is because in Apocalypse Now, the thoughts and feelings of the main character are highly important in perpetuating the story, where as in The Interview, it is the events of the narrative that drive the comedy and story onwards. The interview also chooses to open the film with the credits of the production team and actors, whereas Apocalypse Now opens with more atmospheric footage. This could suggest that Apocalypse Now placed more emphasis on high production values than The Interview, whereas The Interview was more focused on creating a good film for everyone which made more money, by following the more mainstream conventions of film openings.

Aesthetically, the two openings differ greatly. This could be in part due to their genres being different, with the bright cartoon graphics on The Interview being a staple for comedy films, where as the unsettling visuals of Apocalypse Now are more characeristic of serious dramas, thrillers and epics. I especially liked the reverse ease-in and ease-out of the animations found in the opening sequence of The Interview. This has the subjects of the shot zoom into shot, before their motion slows to a crawl allowing the audience to read/view the graphics, before they zoom out of shot again. This gave the opening sequence great fluidity and made the sequence far less stale than if they had chosen to have the elements ease in to a stop and then ease out of shot. However, I also think the use of superimposed footage in the Opening sequence of Apocalypse Now was also extremely effective, giving the impression that we were seeing in to the main character's mind which is a theme continued in the film, as well building up an atmosphere and mood for the rest of the film.

Continuity Task 1 (BLK)

In our most recent task, we were required to create a short piece of cinematography (6 shot limit) about an everyday accident, allowing us to explore and experiment with the effectiveness of continuity techniques to convey a story to an audience.

Our sequence follows two main characters, one played by myself who trips over his own feet throwing his books everywhere (A) and one played by Ella who witnesses the accident (B). A third character (C) played by Olamide also witnesses the accident, but only features in the mastershot. A walks down the corridor and enters a room, soon after which he trips and falls flat on his face to B's shock.

In order for our sequence to make sense, we used a variety of continuity techniques which reinforced our narrative flow. For example, our very first shot was a mastershot to establish a scene for the accident to take place within. This gives the audience a sense geographical space and where all the events of the sequence take place. We also used cross cutting to jump between character A outside of the room in the corridor, to character B inside the room where the accident takes place. This alludes to the fact that the room is likely to be an important setting in the narrative and that it is likely that character A is travelling to the room in shot 2. Finally, we also used a smooth pan and slight tilt in shot 5 to follow character A as he entered the room and tripped over his own feet. This meant that the moment of the accident was centered in shot, whilst allowing our character a lot of movement within the room.

We didn't achieve perfect continuity, however this was improved in the edited version shown at the end. Firstly, in shot 2 there is an awkward pause where A is seen standing still at the start of the shot. Secondly, the action at the end of shot 2 and start of shot 3 is not perfect in sync, resulting in a slight backtrack in time, thus not achieving "match on action" Thirdly, shot 6 with B's reaction is slightly oddly placed within the sequence and feels like a delayed reaction, which is made even more awkward by its long duration. Finally, in shot 3 character B does not react to A's entrance to the room, which looks unnatural. These are examples of continuity errors, because they broke the narrative flow

Our continuity could definitely have been improved through the implementation of a few changes. Shot 2 should have been slightly wider, so as to show more geography and give a better sense of setting for A's march to the classroom. Also in this shot, A should have started out of frame and walked in and out of frame, as this would have helped avoid the awkward pause found at the start of the shot and improve the continuity. In shot 3, we should have started the shot with the door being opened by A, so to achieve "match on action" and B should have reacted to A's entrance in a more natural manner, perhaps saying "Hi" or giving a disgruntled sigh. In shot 4, A's trip seems awkward and unnatural, so instead something should have been placed for A to trip over, such as a left out school bag or banana peel if one wanted to achieve a light hearted mood. Then shot 6 and shot 5 should have been switched around, with shot 6 being shortened by just a little, so that it feels slightly less unnatural. Finally, shot 5 should be last and be let to last a little longer, so that A can fully leave the shot before it cuts away. As a whole, I believe these changes would improve the continuity of our sequences.

Finally, here is an edited version of our sequence, which does the shots slightly more justice.

Genre Stylised Photograph Task (BLK)

With our shot we were trying to connote a horror genre through the use of many different components, for example the shots background is low key lit whilst a spotlight focuses on the hand. The darkened surroundings mean it is difficult to make out fine details in the darkness, this hides what may be the cause of the main character’s distress and lets the viewer imagine a truth which is very likely worse than reality. To create this effect we used our two lights and focused their light on the hand and its immediate background, using the barn doors found on the lights, which drew the viewer’s eyes to these features and meant that the darker areas were perceived as darker than they actually were by the camera.

We also used a very exposed, pale female hand with nail varnish for the subject of the shot as it is a signifier of the horror genre, due to the reoccurring theme of a “Damsel in Distress” found in horror films. It is also strongly juxtaposed to the dark and gritty background, which makes the hand “pop” from the background more which results in a more striking image. Due to both the clawed position and exposed nature of the hand, the dominant reading of the shot would suggest a narrative where the owner of the hand (most likely a vulnerable female main character) is threated by something lurking in the darkness encompassing the shot.

However, if I were to repeat this shot I would have changed the position of the camera so that the hand was slightly larger and filled the shot more, as currently I believe there is slightly too much background visible. This would also require us to close the barn doors on the lights slightly more, so as to keep the same balance of light and dark found in this shot, as I feel it creates a horror inspired mise-en-scene and is aesthetically pleasing.