PRELIMINARY EXERCISES

TABLE TOP 
Brief given: to create a title sequence using only a tabletop and props with a small part of live action, using a given soundtrack. 
Research: Watch in class the title sequence of Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1991) 
To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)
The President (Heidi Berg, Felix Soletic, 2019)
Soundtracks for inspiration: Emily Barker's Nostalgia (the Wallander theme tune), Banana Pancakes and Christina and the Queens Five Dollars.
Session 1: Filming tabletop
For this exercise, I decided to work with Tom. In class, we began by watching various tabletop openings suggested by our teacher to inspire us for our own opening. After listening to the various soundtracks, Tom and I decided we were partially captivated by the song Nostalgia, which we believed would complement our film successfully. We set the tabletop with background cloth, arranged the chosen objects to tell a story that fits with our soundtrack (we used Emily Barker's Nostalgia) and used a sturdy hand to glide the camera above the table top from the start point to the end point. (INSERT VIDEO HERE NEED TO UPLOAD STILL) We used props to create a film opening which has connotations of travel. We achieved this through the mise-en-scene of maps and objects and images with associations to Asia and France, creating possible narratives for the audience implied by the video. We hoped that this opening would create questions for the audience and leave them asking who the characters are and what is the narrative is.
Session 2: Live action shoot
This completes the opening sequence and launches the narrative. We kept this simple by only including a short 2 second clip with a close shot of a man opening a briefcase. This suggests what will happen next by creating enigma. Perhaps drama, conflict? The short opening suggests that these questions will definitely be answered once the audience continue to watch the film and is used to engrossed viewers into the exciting narrative.


 

 

CONTINUITY EXCERISE 

Aim: storyboard and film a brief conversation / confrontation between two parties.

For this exercise, I worked with Jess, Charlotte, Tom and Preesha. We began by brainstorming ideas for the continuity exercise – we landed on the idea of a ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ We drew a storyboard which revealed what we would include, including the mise-en-scene, the camera angels and the editing.

We made sure to include all these:

1.   establishing shot (= where the action takes place, to 'establish' it for the audience) for us, we did a wide angle shot of Charlotte and Tom in the studio.

2.     mid shot of character A already in place – Tom sitting in place

3.     character B arrives, making a two-shot (a shot with two characters) – charlotte as the guest on the show.

4.     a series of shot-reverse shots delivers the dialogue (over the shoulder shots
that will be edited together in order) – the conversation between Tom and Charlotte discussing the ‘millionaire questions’.

5.     another two-shot

6.     bring the narrative to a close in any way that fits – the introduction of Jess’s character who gives help to charlotte for the question.

7.     In post-production we edited the scenes together and used the ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ studio for the backdrop for the green screen.  

From this exercise I further developed by skills of editing and using a greenscreen which taught me many useful techniques which I can successfully use for course work.

ON THE SET 

Brief account of learning to use the cameras and tripods, what filming terminology to use on set and good practice in editing

This account is about what I learnt and what equipment we were shown when we were shown how to use #the Canon cameras and Manfrotto tripods. 

Cameras and tripods. In groups we passed the camera around and each of us practised how to handle the camera, insert the battery and memory card. When you pass the cameras around you should say 'yours' and 'mine' to avoid the risk of dropping it.  We learned how to set up a tripod and to 'bubble' it using the spirit level to help make the camera balanced and in focus. We explored the camera such as how to focus.  The exposure on the camera is adjusted by moving the dial up and down. 

White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in the photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "colour temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. You adjust it by selecting the ‘WB’ on the camera, it will then come up with little pictures representing difference colour tones that are used in different lights which will give a more realistic effect.

180-degree rule. We learned about the 180 degree rule.  The 180-degree rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle.

On set We then learnt the terminology used in the film industry on set. The director shouts 'Standby' before filming to ensure that everyone is ready and when they are, they reply 'Standing by.'

When the director shouts ‘rolling’, everyone on set must be quiet, then he /she shouts ‘action’ which tell the actors to start. After the shoot, the director has said the last ‘cut’, he / she will say ‘strike the kit’ which is the film crew's cue to pack away, put the batteries on charge and ensure that the footage is uploaded. 

Good practice in editing. We are using Final Cut Pro and iMovie on the iMacs in the media studio. When uploading our footage, we should create a folder to keep the shots. These folders are called bins and the unedited footage from cameras are called rushes.