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Lesson Diary: Friday 25th January 2019

So yet again, we watched another film. This time we watched ‘True Romance’ by Tony Scott. The main genre for this film is a mix between Romance and Crime, quite an odd mix if I’m honest. The plot focuses on Clarence (Christian Slater) a comic fanatic who falls for a girl called Alabama (Patricia Arquette). At first both of them are getting along alright, until its revealed that Alabama is a Call Girl and a present for Clarence’s birthday. However, Alabama has actually fallen in love with Clarence and they decide to get married. Clarence makes the decision to kill Alabama’s pimp Drexl (Gary Oldman), in which he does so. From there things take a turn as Don Vincenzo Coccotti (Christopher Walken), advisor of an anonymous mobster, begins to hunt down Clarence as revenge. Overall the film is once again great. The cinematography is pleasing to look at, starting off as dull and gritty in New York and eventually goes to bright and Vibrant in Los Angeles. The story also keeps you watching. I especially liked the interrogation scene with Clarence’s Dad and Don, with Clarence’s Dad knowing he was going to die he decided to insult Don and his bloodline in the best way possible. Overall while the film is good, I wouldn’t say it’s as good as some of the others I’ve watched.

True Romance: 7/10

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The Editing style of Requiem for a Dream: Part 2

The next video I’ve looked at is linked with the previous video, this time however I’ll be looking into a different Editing tip, this one being in another scene in the movie.

This is the second video talked about by Jay:

In the video, Jay talks about another type of Editing he uses. During another part of the film, Harry returns to his mother. This is the second and last time the two of them meet each other in the film, as both of them are getting on with their own vastly different lives. It’s almost as if this scene is 2 worlds colliding, Sara being the positive bubbly one, while Harry is the more negative of the 2. This is even represented in their clothes, as Sara wears bright colors while Harry wears dark ones.

As for the actual Editing skill, it revolves around using the lighting as emotion. For the first half, the camera focuses on the side where the light is facing. In this part, Harry and Sara are just having a simple conversation, with Sara asking how Harry’s doing in his life and other bits of information.

The scene takes a shift however when Sara starts to talk about Harry’s father. When she pauses, Harry notices her teeth chattering. While Harry starts to talk about Sara’s diet pills, the camera has shifted to another side of their faces, this time being on the side where the light isn’t there. This clearly shows a tone shift, as from this point the conversation gets a bit more heated. You see, Harry and his mother have a incredibly faulty relationship, with Harry stealing her TV but eventually coming back every now and then to see each other, with Harry apologizing.

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The Editing style of Requiem for a Dream: Part 1

So I’ve recently looked into a film called Requiem for a Dream. I’ve known about the film for a while, but only recently decided to look into it. Honestly, it’s one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen many. The ending is especially heartbreaking. I do think it’s important to watch this film though, not only to learn new Filming techniques, but it gives very strong life lessons. Onto what I’m focusing on, the Editing of it.

The Editing in Requiem for a Dream was done primarily by Jay Rabinowitz. Jay has worked on several films in the past, such as Eminem’s ‘8 Mile’ (2002), but most of his recognised work came out after this film. Something it noticed was that the film seems to have this constant grainy feel to it. This could be because of when it was released (2000), but it still gives a somewhat unnerving feel. I decided to look into a couple of videos that feature Jay and him talking about the film’s Editing. Interestingly there were a couple of them.

Below is the first one:

In the video, Jay talks about one of the types of editing the Film utilizes. The power of split-screen. The way split-screen works is that it shows 2 shots next to each other, most of the time with two characters, but other times it could be a character and an object. An example of this is the scene between two of the four main characters, Harry and Marion. 

Both of these characters are in a intimate relationship with each other and at this point are lying down gazing into each other. Now they could’ve simply done this without the use of split-screen, however, this isn’t the only shot they use. They add in more shots to the scene, shots consisting of both characters stroking each other, which is done to truly show how close they are with each other at this point in the film. Something to note though is how it’s done. 

You see, despite cutting to different shots, the conversation still keeps going. On Marion’s side, the shot keeps rolling, but on Harry’s side, the shot changes to that of Harry stroking her. 

The same thing happens again a few seconds after, except this time the roles are switched, with the exact same shot as the first still rolling. but this time with Harry talking and Marion stroking. 

This would clearly show that the relationship isn’t just one sided, but in fact mutual with each other. At least at this point in the movie.

This isn’t the only time Split Screen is used in the film.

At another point in the film, there’s a part where the screen splits once again, this time with another main character, Sara, who is Harry’s Mother. Now throughout the film Sara is the odd one out with her addiction. The other 3 characters all have a problem with heroin, which makes one believe that taking those type of Drugs is a really bad thing. But no, Sara’s addiction is Diet Pills, prescribed to her by a doctor, which also means that one can become addicted to any form of Drugs, ‘good’ or bad.

The scene plays out with one side panning into Sara’s face, one of discomfort, while the other side pans into her fridge. This gives the build up of Sara’s discomfort, and really shows her problem with food.

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Lesson Diary: Friday 18th January 2019

So today we watched another film, this one being called ‘Sexy Beast’. This film was worked on by one of the Lecturers when he was in the film business. The main genre for this film is Crime, however there is a good mix of both Drama and Comedy as well. The plot revolves around Ex-gangster Gary (Ray Winstone), happily living a luxurious, retired life in Spain with his wife DeeDee (Amanda Redman). Things take a shift however, as one night out with their friends Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and Jackie (Julianne White) explain how criminal recruiter Don (Ben Kingsley) is coming to Spain. When Don arrives he explains to Gary about a planned heist, which Gary politely declines several times. Don however is having none of it and takes a more violent approach towards him. I won’t spoil the rest, but all in all, it’s a really great film. One of the things I liked was the suspense and build-up of several scenes, some of the characters are gangsters and really give off that intimidation. The visuals in the film become much more dark and gritty about halfway through, which really fits the gangster theme that the film was going for. I kind of like the Demonic Rabbit scenes in the film as well, as I think they give a representation of the Hunter being the Hunted. Overall, this was a great film that, just like ‘Train to Busan’ I would happily watch again in the future.

Sexy Beast: 9/10

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My groups Unit 12 Horror Film. This short was originally meant to be much more different than shown here, the problem I had was that I was ill during the week this was meant to be edited on, so had I not been ill it would’ve turned out quite a bit different.

Credits:

Georgia La Monica as The Girl

Will Sarbutts as The Convertor

Camerawork and Producer: Olivia June Beko

Editor: Will Sarbutts

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Lesson Diary: Friday 11th January 2019

So today was another day in terms of work, just simple Editing, however I did watch another film. This film was called ‘Train to Busan’. This is the first film I’ve watched on this course that isn’t an English Language Film, rather it was a South Korean film with English Subtitles, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable to watch. Despite mainly being a Zombie Film, it has a mix of several genres, such as Horror, Action and especially Drama. The plot follows Seok-Wo (Gong-Yoo), a Single, Workaholic Father who reluctantly has to take his Daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) to Busan via train to see her Mother, by the time both of them get to the Train Station however a Zombie outbreak has begun. One gets inside however, and both Seok-Wo and Su-an, along with several other characters must survive inside the train. Overall, the film is absolutely amazing, sure it’s you typical Zombie film, but I loved the characters and how attached you get to them, and that ending, just heartbreaking. Overall another film that was just incredible, would definitely watch it again some time in the future.

Train to Busan: 9/10

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Demon Face Tutorial

So when creating the horror film, I wanted to make a scary looking face for The girl towards the end. Unfortunately I haven’t used this technique for the Horror because the way the technique is used needs to have slow and stable motion, which we did not have, I also didn’t have enough time to refilm the shot. I will however be taking about the video itself though. So I searched for some how-to videos to help me. Now none of the videos actually used Adobe Premiere Pro, but instead they used Adobe After Effects, which makes more sense as After Effects is much more advanced in terms of Editing. The one that I found to be the most helpful though was the one below, as that actually had a detailed design. It’s quite complicated at first but eventually it becomes simple to do it. Overall if it comes to it I will use this technique in the future when or if I ever need it.

https://youtu.be/AXMDdGHAhnk

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Horror Movie Idea

So plans have changed since last week, for one thing, we’re no longer doing the puppet idea, mainly because it didn’t sound as good as we thought in retrospect. We also couldn’t get the right equipment for it, so we decided to change the idea to something we could do.The idea focuses on a girl who walks down a dark corridor and gets captured by a creature. It’s incredibly simple, but I’ve thought of an idea o make it more unique. So in Horror movies there’s usually some sort of creature involved, but where do these creatures come from? Now usually there’s some sort of explanation involved, but I came up with the idea of having a creature that creates other creatures. It’s not much but I think it will look much better when seen on the small screen.

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Horror Movie Planning

So I’m currently working in a group of 4 on the Horror Film. We’ve been throwing some ideas around about what we could do, but we eventually came up with the idea of using a Creepy Puppet on the hand of someone as the main plot point, the difference is that instead of the Puppet controlling the person, the person is actually insane and imagining things. So throughout next week we will be creating a film that revolves around this idea.

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Unit 9 and 10: Evaluation

After finally finishing the Documentary, I’m going to be evaluating on the work I’ve done. I’m so happy with the work I’ve done, I think it’s so much better than the final project I did before summer. What makes it better is that there are only a few things I would change to make it better according to some responses, but even then this will help me next time I decide to do something similar to this.

For my Research, I didn’t have that much to apply as really I came up with this whole idea in my head. There are a couple of things though, such as some creepy videos I watched, but there was one video that stood out for me. That being ‘the Chilling Chambers of Colchester Castle’, which is a Video from Buzzfeed about 2 guys going to Colchester Castle at night. I would say the video isn’t that good when it comes to Horror, but it does have quite a lot of facts and stories about the Castle, similar to what I looked into. I also like the Editing style, as it also had that creepy atmosphere that I was looking for. For Primary Research, I sent out a Survey, asking people questions such as what their favourite style of Documentary was, or what their favourite genre of Music was, so I got a decent amount of responses from that, such as how most people liked the Observational style, while other responses included the Expository and Participatory styles. For Secondary Research, I looked into Websites such as the BBC and Eerieplace for creepy facts about the Castle. As for what I would’ve improved, I would’ve watched some Documentaries that could be somewhat applied to my own Documentary, but really there wasn’t anything.

For Planning or Pre-Production, as I was doing it on my own, I had to create a Call Sheet, Shot List, Recce Report, Risk Assessment, Production Schedule Interview Questions and Script. Since then I had changed quite a few things, such as the Shot List. This is because I kept changing how I wanted to present it, I originally wanted to have it so I would actually be in the Documentary, talking about the certain events. This would’ve also made it have a partially Participatory style, but in the end that changed because I didn’t think it would fit that well. I also got into contact with the Castle as I would need to plan the day when I would film. Luckily, I managed to get a response from one of the Curators saying I could go and film. I went in a few times to plan things with her and everything was set for Filming. If there was anything I could’ve done more, most likely would’ve been working on the Shot List.

When it came to Production, I worked with Elliott to help me with the filming. While it wasn’t a big job, I’m still grateful for his help carrying the equipment to the Castle on the day. The Equipment we had included a Camera, Tripod, Sound Kit and Lighting Kit. When we arrived at the Castle, I had a bit of a worry, mainly because the Curator, Emma, didn’t show up. Turns out she didn’t receive my e-mail the night before, so that unfortunately cut our filming time down by quite a bit. But we at least got all the necessary filming done. If there was anything more I would do, it would’ve been to take more behind the scenes pictures as evidence, and maybe some more B-roll footage.

Finally there was Editing or Post-Production. While I hadn’t done too much Filming, most of my strong points went into this. I decided to use Archive footage for the beginning of it because I wanted to make a comparison between Old and Modern Colchester, also the grainy Black and White effect I added made the footage look a bit more atmospheric. The footage was from the East Anglia Archive, which had several videos which included Colchester Castle, and while at first I didn’t know how to download them, I was able to figure it out and ultimately managed to put it in the video. Then there was the Audio, which was quite a problem because there was the constant noise in the background, but after re-recording it on my phone it was mostly fixed. Another problem I had was with the Recreation footage with Matthew Hopkins, in which the Audio wasn’t really clear, but I couldn’t do much about it as it was already hard to hear even without the Microphone. Finally, I think the thing I would of changed the most it the black gaps towards the end. I was looking for images that would fit the scene but unfortunately, I couldn’t find any that would work.

Overall, despite the problems I faced, I’m very happy how this turned out. While it’s not as good as I hoped it would be, its much better than the Final project I did before Summer. I think if I had more people to help, I could’ve done more, but because I was on my own, I had the freedom to do what I wanted, which while not always best, really helped when it came to this project.

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My Unit 9 and 10 Documentary project...

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Audition Problems

So for the Documentary, I wanted to have a Voice-over as the Narration, so I decided to go to the Audio Studio and record some lines. However, when I listened to it through the headphones it sounded fine, but when I put it through Audition, there was noise in the background (basically the sound of TV Static), which pretty much messed it up. I tried using different tools on Audition, but nothing seemed to work each time I exported it. In the end, I decided to just simply use my phone to record the lines. While it sounded much more clear, it still had a problem, but it at least sounded better than before.

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Editing my Documentary

So when it came to editing my Documentary I had quite a lot of work to do, as most of what I had planned would be done in Editing. The way I wanted it to play out was with me telling different events that happened at the Castle, so its somewhat of a story format. Most of the footage will consist of at least a Third of Pictures and a Third of Archive Footage, as I wouldn't have enough time to go and film several pictures relating to the events at the Castle. I've also added many effects in to set the atmosphere, making most of it either Black and White or have a 60′s vibe to it. Overall, going very successful so far. Below are some screenshots of the Editing:

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Music for Documentary

So when it comes to the music for the Documentary, I was planning on using several creepy sounding songs. In the end I came across these songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRv4OMozxos&list=PLzCxunOM5WFLGB-hTmMkBfV1NX9RsEHuT&index=3

So this first song is going to be used for the intro part of it, to build up the suspense, but then it will go quiet as the Documentary shifts into its creepy side. I also chose this song because not only is there a no copyright claim, but also because of how peaceful it sounds.

I’ve also chosen these songs below, specifically because they’re the type of songs that fit the dark atmosphere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0V3Rn1xrb4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvD8QSO7NPw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VNgdnunCxs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V1or2JQkNI

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Thursday 22nd September 2018: Filming Day

So today was finally the day that I went out to go Filming, I arrived at the college with Elliott and we picked up the Equipment we needed, which includes the Camera, Tripod, Sound Kit and Lighting Kit. I used these pieces of Equipment such as the Lighting Kit because they would give me the perfect shots I needed, for example, I blocked the light out of the room because I wanted to make the room pitch black so I could then use the Lighting Kit to make the scene look right. We then went to the Castle to begin our Filming, in which we were meant to start Filming at 1:30pm but the Curator didn’t show up. Turns out she didn’t actually get the email I sent the day before because of some technical difficulties, luckily she did turn up in the end though, but not until around 2:30pm, so we went to film in the prisons, where I got some footage of the Matthew Hopkins recreation. Finally when she did arrive, we began filming. I set the room right for the interview and began filming. The first recording was without the Sound Kit as I wanted to test what it would sound like, not that good to be honest, however the second take was much louder and clearer so that was good. After Recording the footage, we filmed some stairs that lead to a symbol carved in stone that represented the Witches. Finally we had finished the actual filming, all that was left to do was transfer the footage to a Hard Drive. Overall a very successful day.

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Documentary Pre-Production Work

So I’ve recently finished the Pre-Production work for the Documentary, these include a Call Sheet, a Shot List, a Production Schedule, a Recce Report, a Risk Assessment, a Script and a Storyboard, you can see them below:

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Bath University Trip

So after I finished the interview I went straight to Bath to look at the University there. I have to say that compared to the other ones it’s very nice. While Staffordshire’s still number 1 for me, this one is easily second. So bath itself is quite Urban, however, it’s surrounded by hills, which makes it more Rural. The University itself is somewhat big, but I think Westminster and Staffordshire are a bit bigger. We were given a welcome talk about what to expect at the University, and one of the things that surprised me was how if you make it your first choice, your not only guaranteed a place there, but you’ll also be given £700. After that I went to the Film and Television talk, in which they talked about the same sort of details as other Universities I’ve seen. I then took a look around the facilities, such as the Green-screen room, Editing Suites and even a room for Foley sound effects. Finally I went to have a look at the Halls of Residence, which looked nicer than the ones at Gloustershire and Westminster, but still not as nice as Staffordshire. I also briefly looked at the Student Union, which had a Bar, Shop and even a Gym. Overall I would say it was a incredibly successful day, I’d go as far as to say it’s my 2nd most wanted choice for choices.