Kenya Bell

Question 7: Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In my preliminary task we did not do enough detailed research and planning before filming the scene, this is where I have progressed for my final task. I made sure I researched as much as possible before starting to film such as creating a paper storyboard, then an animatic storyboard, researching characters etc.

Before we progressed with our film shooting we created a storyboard and an animatic storyboard. We done this so that we could work out the timings of our film, such as how long our shots should stay on screen. The animatic storyboard also describes each shot to be able to bring it more alive and realistic; I have learnt that this allowed us to see if the story line of our opening sequence flowed well and if it was just enough to draw people into the rest of the film.

I created a titles timeline as more research for our opening sequence, because every opening sequence has titles but I needed to figure out in which order they showed up. From doing this research task I learnt in which order the titles showed up, how long the titles where visible for and how they were incorporated into the opening sequence, so that they were seen but did not take the attention away from the scene that was going on behind them. After I learnt all of this we decided to use the order in which the titles show up, but we laid them out differently in the opening sequence, we also made sure they were noticeable by giving them their own sound e.g. a type writer sound.

I carried out a questionnaire and emailed it out to different people, this made sure we got reasonable results back which I then analyses to learn more about the answers and I came to conclusions. The analysis of audience research showed that many people did not know about the noir genre, because several people asked what that option was. I learnt that the opening sequence we created must include the other features the audience voted for, such as they like a plot twist within a movie so we included one.

Detailed analysis’s where carried out by me for two different opening sequences one was Bugsy Malone and the other Sunset Blvd. This research was needed to see which camera angles, narrative, and mise en scene where use in the opening sequence. From these two scenes I decided which parts of them we could incorporate into our opening sequence and which we should defiantly not use as it would bore the audience. I learnt that showing the audience glimpses if the best part of the film is intriguing and therefore we used this technique in our opening sequence in the form of a flashback. We learnt that the older noir film had the titles all running on a black screen all at once, I learn that the newer audience of today would find this off putting so we did not use this technique.

As additional research I went out to search for the locations we could and where going to use to film our media product. After doing this I learnt that these locations where not suitable because the mise en scene was not correct for our noir film and therefore it would not look professional.

Mathew researched the different certifications and after doing this we learnt that our opening sequence fitted into the category for age 15. Also we learnt that conventionally noir films would be in between the certifications 15 to 18.

The institution research I carried out allowed me to find out about different companies; it also showed me which company’s sold which types of films. We learnt that we needed to use Paramount Pictures to publish our film because they are best known for selling noir films so the audience would know the film was good by just using the brand.

I have learnt that to be able to film our opening sequence we needed a huge amount of communication between each actor and us. We did have several problems with trying to find a date in which a few actors could film at the same time and date. This caused problems such as actors dropping out on the shooting day and not enough actors being available at the same data. To solve this I rearranged the shooting days, which most actors could film on and I also called in reserve actors which we made sure we had in case of this problem happening.

Kenya Bell

From all of this research I have learnt how to make creative decisions quickly in the case of emergency’s when in the middle of filming a scene. I have also became better at planning an organising filming times and keeping up to data with work.

In my preliminary task we had to include a match on action which was standard since I had only just started learning about the camera and types of camera shots. In our opening sequence we included a match on action which had progressed further than what I achieved on the preliminary task. I included a close up of the door handle on an angle so that the audience could see the character turn the handle. My shot types had greatly improved as I included several more shot types such as close up, cantered angle, pan movement etc. in our opening sequence. This made sure that tension was built up during the opening so that the audience wanted to see more of the film.

Some cantered angles I chose to include where more noticeable than others because they needed to make a specific impact on the audience. An example of a recognisable one would be when the audience can see Tony dead on the floor. The impact of the cantered angle is so that the audience know something has gone terribly wrong and now there is no salability in the murders life because he has finally moved to the bad side.

Going from my preliminary task I feel like I have massively improved my confidence with the camera equipment. I can now use the equipment in an efficient way so that none of the scenes go blurry. I have also learnt how to use the operations on the camera such as taking still images and recording videos. The still images came in handy when you needed to portray someone as dead and instead of videoing them breathing you could take one photo and it would look like they were not breathing.

The tripod was also another piece of equipment that I became more confident with. This allowed me to record with the camera and it gave a sturdy effect so that the camera did not move from the point it was put in. I learnt how to adjust the legs height to be able to record at different levels during the filming. The tripod could also be moved to be able to follow the characters while they are moving. This I did by loosening the handle control and some blots so that it was more movable.

Once I had leant how to use a tripod efficiently I moved onto more equipment that included a tripod such as the track and jip. The track and jip was a lot more technical because it included a camera, tripod, track and jip. The track and jip first had to be set up in the location we were filming, and since our track was short we had to keep stopping the camera to be able to move the track and jip about to get a longer lasting shot.

In general with Mac’s I feel more confident using them because I know how to save my work and where exactly to place it so that it does not disappear. Also I have learnt that on Final Cut Pro when you edit with the software it will save automatically to the mac I was using. Making sure the examiners could understand what I was achieving during the lessons I took some screen shots, of work on the mac’s which I did by clicking cmd+shift+4.

- How successful do you feel your end product is at fulfilling the brief?