Lighting practise shots

Here we practised with light, in preparation for my thriller open title sequence task. Me, Niamh, Rae and Courtney have practised various lightings, on different shots. All the photo's were taken with Courtney's iPhone 6, as we could easily edit them on her phone, and transfer them to blogger.

For this shot, we attempted the 3 point full lighting. We couldn't create it properly as we didn't have all the equipment needed, so we improvised. We used the flash lights on our phones, Niamh was stood at the back of me with the flash light on, this was the back light. Then Rae was stood in front of me with the flash light shinning on my face, this was the full light. Courtney stood at the side of me with the flash light on, whilst taking the picture; this was the key light. We tried to create a 'normal' looking scene, as you can see I am the object in focus. The shot looks very average as I'm looking into the distance. The colours in the background are average, as we exposed more light from the lights above us to create a creamy background.

The purpose of this shot was the create background lighting. The shot created a silhouette of Rae looking out the window, as you can only see the outline of her.  Although this shot is common in romantic films, it is useful for a thriller as it builds up mystery. The pathetic fallacy could be that the whether reflects the characters mood, as it is dull and rainy outside. The whether is usually gloomy in a thriller, therefore this shot goes well with the genre we're trying to create.

This type of lighting is called Chiaroscuro lighting, it is commonly used in horror films, and dramas. We have achieved this lighting through contrasting black and white, we did this by editing the photo on Courtney's phone. In the shot, there is harsh lighting on my face, created again by the flash light on Courtney's phone.  Immediately, the audiences attention is drawn to my face as it is a bright white colour, whereas the majority of the bavckground is black. Although some of the background is white, it isn't as outstanding as the shot is a close up of my face. 

For this shot, the lighting we used was artificial. We made this light ourselevs through the photo effect called 'process', this lighting effect can be found on iPhones when you click the camera icon.

The one circled is the process effect. We chose this particular effect, as we wanted a shot which had a mixed blue, grey and harsh yellow. The shot makes naturally darker objects seem blue, which contrasts to their normal colour. It also makes lighter objects seem yellow, giving them lighter tones. Therefore it gives the effects of light and dark which work together to create this effect.

One page pitch

Deaden hikes (anagram for ‘hide and seek’)

Genre: Horror Thriller

Length: 122 minutes (2 minutes opening)

Target audience: 15-24 years old

Audience appeal:

• Young characters- target audience can relate
• Gives teenagers thrills, however not appropriate for children because of the graphic scenes
• Want viewers to question our film as it addresses mental and gender issues

  Tagline: you are your own worst enemy

 What if you were close but never noticed the dangers around you? What if you were the victim  to your own inner demons? What if? 

 The story synopsis: A runner goes for a jog to get rid of last night’s hangover. Meanwhile, in another part of the wood a distressed victim is on their last thread of life calling to anyone nearby. “Please, please, please” but how can you help someone who’s too far gone? When people say live your life like it’s your last, applied to Iyra Marshall on a day basis because she doesn’t remember most of their life. In her last moments she must decide the best way to spend it is to take a life, but who’s?

 Statement of intent: We want to convey the issues of mental illness and bring the saying “we are our own worst enemies” to real life. We like the idea that throughout life we are fighting our inner demons and our main character clearly does that, but is not successful in winning against the little voice in her head.

 Visual realisation: High contrast in many scenes. We want it to have a dark colour but enough that it doesn’t have a bad camera quality. We don’t want to alter the colour too much but rather make it more defined. It’s going to have an intense atmosphere to it so the audience will be able to feel some realism in it.

Rae Griffiths, Niamh Barratt, Courtney Lynch and Hyleana Anthony

Initial thriller ideas

For my thriller, I have chosen to work with Niamh, Rae and Courtney. This is who I worked with for my preliminary task, apart from Rae who is a new member to our group:). 

We put our brains together and brainstormed some initial indea' for our thriller film. The sub genre in our thriller is horror, therefore we was thinking of having a narrative about a psychiatric patient who has espcaped from a mental asylum. Obviously we will be respectful to those who do suffer from mental illnesses in our opening title. We want our opening to be set in a wood. Therefore we was thinking of all of us having their own character in the opening eg someone's a runner, someone's taking their dog on a walk. We imagined that the camera would zoom in on a foot print left by the runner, which would contain a title of the directors name or an actors name. We thought this would give the effect of mystery aswell as horror. The viewer would see someone tied up to a tree, screeming for help but they would be dressed in white. Then we thought the person who was tied up could be the patient, who tied themselves up. The patient is now laughing, to suggest they have a split personality and clearly suffer from insanity. 

For the title of the film, we wanted an anagram of a word that's all jumbled up to transform into the word 'asylum'. This is because we was thinking of naming the film 'asylum' but we're not sure yet. Here is a picture of the spider diagram we created in lesson on our idea's. This will give you an insight of the roles we all have, and the shots we want to use within the opening. 

Screenplay of Jaws

Coventions of a thriller

Conventions of a thriller from hyleanaanthony

Textual anaylse of Se7en

Title sequence analyse (gone girl)

Question 6 of evaluation

Question 5 of evaluation

Question 4 of evalutaion

Q4: How well did you meet the brief?
The aim of the task was to create a piece that consisted of a character entering a room and exchanging a few lines of dialogue with another person. This is what we did in our preliminary task, although this task was only a practise, we wanted to make it more exciting. This is why added a narrative to our story line, to make it more excitable.

We obeyed the 180 degree rule within our task, we demonstrated this through the conversation through me and Courtney at the end. I have created a GIF at the side, to demonstrate our use of
 I180 degree rule. We have correctly matched our lefts and
our rights, to make it look like we're having an actual
conversation. To make our conversation look real, we used the shot/reverse shot. It was quite weird just talking to the camera and not actually talking to Courtney. But I think that Niamh did a good job on editing this scene, to make it look like we were actually having a conversation. This was all our first attempts of using shot reverse shot, so it took quite a few takes to get it right. However these techniques contributed to the continuity of the task, without them, the short film wouldn't be believable for the viewers.

I believe we also demonstrated match on action, in our task. We successfully cut from one scene to another, making it seem like both scenes were shot in the same place. It made continuity flow, therefore made the task more believable. 

Question 3 of evaluation

If you click on the link, it should take you to my answer to question 3. https://bubbl.us/?h=2e72b0/5d2628/30VH9YfdoIRzw&r=327167263

Question 2 of evaluation

Q2 from hyleanaanthony

Question 1 of evaluation

Preliminary Task- the final product

This is the final product of our preliminary task. In general the shooting of the whole task went quite smoothly. Although Niamh broke the media cuboured when she went to return a camera. Fortunately a year 13 was able to fix it, so overall our preliminary task was a success, and I hope you've enjoyed watching it:).

Storyboard vlog

•Credits will dissolve out on screen when the video starts playing.

•We wanted fox music to start playing, however we're not a Hollywood film production.

•Courtney (the main character) has her headphones in during this scene, the music the viewer hears is what's playing in the headphones.

•When the headphones are removed, the viewer can hear natural sounds again.

•I (hyleana) is looking behind Courtney, creating tension.

•Hear the creaking of the door to evoke tension and create a bigger build up.

•As Courtney walks through the door, I walk around the corner

•Push in close up of Courtney's face.

•Zoom out

•Before entering classroom, music is stopped

•Both in the shot of shot/reverse shot 

to show that dialogue is being spoken

Preliminary Task prep

The Preliminary task requires us to film a short video, that shows a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down on a chair. When the character sits down they will exchange a few lines of dialog with the character already sat down in the room. The task requires us to use continuity methods we will apply this by using editing.

For this task I am working with Niamh Barrett and Courtney Lynch. My role in this task is to be the character already sat in the room and to be assistant editor. Courtney is going to be the main character in the short film, the camera will mainly be focused on her. Whereas Niamh will be the main editor of the film.

This is our team, from left to right: Niamh, Courtney and Me. The one jumping in the background is Rae, she isn't apart of our group but photo bombed the only decent picture we got:). 

During this task we will be demonstrating match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. All these techniques will contribute towards the continuity of the short film, without continuity the short film would not make sense, and it wouldn't be believable for the audience.

Match on action refers to an editing technique where the editor cuts from one shot to another view, that matches the first shot action. This type of editing is key, as it gives of the impression of contunity, although these scenes may have been filmed days apart.

The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline for film makers. It states that two characters in the same scene should have the same left/right relationship to eachover. However if the cramera passes over the axis, this is called crossing the line, sometimes this happens to create a certain effect, but it is best to stick to the rule.

Camera Practise Shots

We have used these different shots, to try and get across the narrative of it being a students first day at school. To take this shot we used the panorama function on my iPhone. To set the scene we decided to open the narrative with an establishing shot. As you can see the opening shot gives you a 'general view', which is of Tupton hall school.

To follow the narrative we used a close up to fit the whole sign in, so the viewer focuses on the direction board. We used this to show how the student may feel lost as it is their first day, therefore doesn't know where everything is, so needs to be pointed in the right direction

The shot/reverse shot shows the audience a conversation between Niamh and Laura and how the react to eachover. The audience can infer that the conversation between them is quite pleasant as Laura is smiling at Niamh. This follows the narrative, as it shows how the student begins to make a friends on their first day.

We used a long shot to show how the student is dominated by their surroundings. This shot follows the narrative, as the audience can see how small the student is compared to the school. As the student is new they may feel like nothing compared to how big the school actually is, they may feel like they don't really matter to the school.

For this shot we used an extreme close up of the students eye, to show tiredness. The shot zooms into the eye  to show it in detail, the viewer can see it is blood shot. This shot follows the narrative as the first day of school can often be tiring and stressful, therefore the viewer can infer that, the students first day is coming to an end. 

To finish with we used a low shot, to make the viewer feel like they're looking through the eyes of someone else. This fits into the narrative, because it is a ride sign, the viewer can infer that the student is on the way home from school in a car. We used this shot because the student may feel over whelmed by the day, therefore they feel small in comparison to everything else. The student may also feel relived that their first day is over, confidence may grow as the year progresses.

Welcome to my blogsite

I have never studied media before, I chose media as one of my AS levels because it's something different. I am a keen watcher of films, as I regularly go to the cinema. I am intrigued to find out how the films are made, in the process of this course.

One particular area I am not so keen on is using this blog. I have never used a blog before, therefore i don't really know how to use one properly (at the minute). Hopefully throughout the corse I will develop my blogging skills.

The '2 and a half minute film opening' task interests me, i like the idea of this being an independent task. I have already began to think of some of my own ideas which will hopefully be presented in this short clip.