The filming is being done around sunset so we need to be careful with the timing and the transportation or equipment.
Below is our schedule:
Tuesday: Leave School at 3:20, walk to Navigation Wharf, film sequence 1; Ed & Craig dialogue and Craig's journey into the forest leave at 4:30 before it gets too dark.
Wednesday: Leave School at 3:20, walk to the forest and film sequence 2; Craig walking through wood, running away and falling. Possibly death, if we have time.
Thursday (Possible) Leave School at 2:20 and film anything that is outstanding.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Horror intro research; Three films
During some spare time I started researching and looking into the key factors of the intros of three great horror movies, below is my analysis:
Dawn of the dead – 2004 remake
Camera Shots: The first shot is a long shot of a crowd of Muslims praying simultaneously, which is a normal everyday occurrence, the next shot is a close up of a zombie, there isn’t any fluent movement but the audience can tell it is attacking. Many of the shots are close up, they are mainly unfocused and depict scenarios such as military police preparing, news reports that are largely unorganized which is chaotic in its own right, and people getting attacked by the zombies.
Sound: The sound in the opening few seconds are diegetic, and show the audience that there is no understanding of the zombies, and there is also lots of screaming that shows the terror of the outbreak. Then the sound becomes non diegetic to a song called “When the man comes around” by Johnny Cash. The sound becomes diegetic in the clips of news conferences or attacks.
Cuts: The cuts are frequent and numerous, the scene doesn’t stick with one clip for anything over 10 seconds to show the true chaos in the situation.
Mise en Scene: The lighting is mostly normal daylight to emphasize that this can happen in any time of the day, the costumes are formal for the people who aren’t infected, and people who are infected are in normal everyday clothes, implying that the vast population of normal working class people are the first to be infected.
Camera Shots: The first shot is a long shot of a crowd of Muslims praying simultaneously, which is a normal everyday occurrence, the next shot is a close up of a zombie, there isn’t any fluent movement but the audience can tell it is attacking. Many of the shots are close up, they are mainly unfocused and depict scenarios such as military police preparing, news reports that are largely unorganized which is chaotic in its own right, and people getting attacked by the zombies.
Sound: The sound in the opening few seconds are diegetic, and show the audience that there is no understanding of the zombies, and there is also lots of screaming that shows the terror of the outbreak. Then the sound becomes non diegetic to a song called “When the man comes around” by Johnny Cash. The sound becomes diegetic in the clips of news conferences or attacks.
Cuts: The cuts are frequent and numerous, the scene doesn’t stick with one clip for anything over 10 seconds to show the true chaos in the situation.
Mise en Scene: The lighting is mostly normal daylight to emphasize that this can happen in any time of the day, the costumes are formal for the people who aren’t infected, and people who are infected are in normal everyday clothes, implying that the vast population of normal working class people are the first to be infected.
Scream
Camera shots: The first shot is a mid shot of a woman picking up a phone, there is confusion as to whom she is talking, but the caller makes no attempt to answer her questions, she then hangs up on him, only the be called a second time, in which he says that he wants to talk to her. She hangs up, the next shot is an establishing shot of her house with a swing rocking in the wind. She then starts making popcorn to be called a third time this shot is a mid shot, the camera tracks her through the house as she talks to the mysterious caller. The caller then reveals that he is looking at her, and the camera zooms closer to the woman’s face, she hangs up. The man calls twice more and on the second time he threatens to gut her like a fish if she hangs up again, this shot uses panning and close up to emphasize her fear. The shots continue to be close up until she finds her boyfriend on the patio when it has a long shot of her boyfriend tied up.
Sound: The sound is diegetic mostly, of popcorn cooking and the phone conversations, the only non diegetic sound is where the killer reveals what he’ll do and then it has low key music.
Cuts: The shots cut frequently to keep pace and to keep suspense, the cuts normally only happen after the phone call takes a twist for the worst.
Mise en scene: the costumes are normal clothing for high school students, the killer is in a black robe and has a white ghost face mask, and the lighting is low key.
Camera shots: The first shot is a mid shot of a woman picking up a phone, there is confusion as to whom she is talking, but the caller makes no attempt to answer her questions, she then hangs up on him, only the be called a second time, in which he says that he wants to talk to her. She hangs up, the next shot is an establishing shot of her house with a swing rocking in the wind. She then starts making popcorn to be called a third time this shot is a mid shot, the camera tracks her through the house as she talks to the mysterious caller. The caller then reveals that he is looking at her, and the camera zooms closer to the woman’s face, she hangs up. The man calls twice more and on the second time he threatens to gut her like a fish if she hangs up again, this shot uses panning and close up to emphasize her fear. The shots continue to be close up until she finds her boyfriend on the patio when it has a long shot of her boyfriend tied up.
Sound: The sound is diegetic mostly, of popcorn cooking and the phone conversations, the only non diegetic sound is where the killer reveals what he’ll do and then it has low key music.
Cuts: The shots cut frequently to keep pace and to keep suspense, the cuts normally only happen after the phone call takes a twist for the worst.
Mise en scene: the costumes are normal clothing for high school students, the killer is in a black robe and has a white ghost face mask, and the lighting is low key.
Dracula
Camera shots: we open on an establishing shot of a dome, a crucifix falls to the floor from an aerial shot as it smashes on the floor. We cut to a map with the muslim holy symbol surrounding Romania, then we cut to a close up of Dracula in armour kissing his bride. We then cut to fire, as we see the battle silhouetted against the crimson sky. The battle is won but we cut to a long shot of Dracula’s bride jumping out of the castle window after hearing false news of his death. We cut to a mid shot of Dracula walking into a chapel, as his bride lay dead below a crucifix, Dracula in a fit of rage renounces God, thus making him a vampire.
Sound: the sound for the opening credits is low key non diegetic, a narrator explains the story,
Cuts: The cuts are frequent, especially in the battle, to show the pace of the film.
Mise en scene: the lighting is low throughout the intro, the costumes are normal for that time period.
Camera shots: we open on an establishing shot of a dome, a crucifix falls to the floor from an aerial shot as it smashes on the floor. We cut to a map with the muslim holy symbol surrounding Romania, then we cut to a close up of Dracula in armour kissing his bride. We then cut to fire, as we see the battle silhouetted against the crimson sky. The battle is won but we cut to a long shot of Dracula’s bride jumping out of the castle window after hearing false news of his death. We cut to a mid shot of Dracula walking into a chapel, as his bride lay dead below a crucifix, Dracula in a fit of rage renounces God, thus making him a vampire.
Sound: the sound for the opening credits is low key non diegetic, a narrator explains the story,
Cuts: The cuts are frequent, especially in the battle, to show the pace of the film.
Mise en scene: the lighting is low throughout the intro, the costumes are normal for that time period.
Preliminary task video and conclusion.
Around mid October we finished filming our preliminary task, after 3 weeks of planning and preparing. Using the photos and plans describe in the preliminary task overview blog I wrote in late October (You can find the blog in this link), the raw video lasted over 2 minutes, but was full of shots that weren't quite correct, or were ruined by laughing. After editing these shots out of the clip, and editing various other things, we finally completed the video, with the video lasting just over 30 seconds. Below is our video:
From the preparations shown in the previous blog, you can see the similarities between the preparation, and the finished product. These are the shots.
During the filming, I constantly referred to these photographs so that I could ensure the shots were correctly angled, and that nothing was left out of the film that we prepared for beforehand.
The first seven seconds worked to the plan in my opinion, they took 5 minutes to shoot, and the first shot took at least 4 takes before we got it correct. The second shot was well clipped to the first shot so it remained fluent and consistent. The next shot required us to cut ahead fluently to later on in the clip, so we used this as he sat down, unfortunately I believe it was too sudden, and feels more like a jump rather than a cut. However, we edited this, and the final in the video above was as close as we could get to it being fluent.
The dialogue made use of the 180 degree rule and also the shot reverse shot. The dialogue was intended to be an interrogation, with a criminal (portrayed by Jonathan), irritated by the belief that he is innocent, and later describes that he was only protecting his child, we do not fully explain what happened, this is because we thought it would add suspense and a little bit of mystery. The interrogator (portrayed by Josh) describes that there were many reasons why the criminal was being held, but again, we do not explain why, for the same effect as before. We fade to black as the criminal finishes explaining how he only protected his child, as required by the task.
Credits, in order of appearance:
Interrogator - Josh Spoelstra
Criminal - Jonathan Fromant
Lawyer - Craig Robson
Policeman - Edward Tyrell
Director - Michael Walters.
In conclusion I believe that this video worked well according to the plans, even though not everything worked as fluently as we had hoped, all in all, I'm rather happy about the final product, we used all of the shots required and kept a consistency and suspense, and as this was the main idea behind the filming and the task, I believe that, even though it's not bafta award winning material, that we did a good job on this and I'm satisfied with the finished product.
Thanks for reading my blog.
Michael.
From the preparations shown in the previous blog, you can see the similarities between the preparation, and the finished product. These are the shots.
During the filming, I constantly referred to these photographs so that I could ensure the shots were correctly angled, and that nothing was left out of the film that we prepared for beforehand.
The first seven seconds worked to the plan in my opinion, they took 5 minutes to shoot, and the first shot took at least 4 takes before we got it correct. The second shot was well clipped to the first shot so it remained fluent and consistent. The next shot required us to cut ahead fluently to later on in the clip, so we used this as he sat down, unfortunately I believe it was too sudden, and feels more like a jump rather than a cut. However, we edited this, and the final in the video above was as close as we could get to it being fluent.
The dialogue made use of the 180 degree rule and also the shot reverse shot. The dialogue was intended to be an interrogation, with a criminal (portrayed by Jonathan), irritated by the belief that he is innocent, and later describes that he was only protecting his child, we do not fully explain what happened, this is because we thought it would add suspense and a little bit of mystery. The interrogator (portrayed by Josh) describes that there were many reasons why the criminal was being held, but again, we do not explain why, for the same effect as before. We fade to black as the criminal finishes explaining how he only protected his child, as required by the task.
Credits, in order of appearance:
Interrogator - Josh Spoelstra
Criminal - Jonathan Fromant
Lawyer - Craig Robson
Policeman - Edward Tyrell
Director - Michael Walters.
In conclusion I believe that this video worked well according to the plans, even though not everything worked as fluently as we had hoped, all in all, I'm rather happy about the final product, we used all of the shots required and kept a consistency and suspense, and as this was the main idea behind the filming and the task, I believe that, even though it's not bafta award winning material, that we did a good job on this and I'm satisfied with the finished product.
Thanks for reading my blog.
Michael.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)