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AS FILM OPENING: EXCEPTIONAL

Preliminary Task: I've Been Expecting You

1 Apr 2011

3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

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We named our production company 'Offbeat Productions' because we wanted to make films with conventional genres and themes in an alternative way. We would be a British company that gains funding from large studios in exchange for selling our distribution rights, in order to reach a larger audience. We felt that 'Exceptional' would be an appropriate sort of film for our company because it is set in the UK, and the whole plot doesn't entirely follow the traditional superhero format.


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As we couldn't put any company credits in our opening sequence, we created the fictional 'Box
Spotlight Pictures' which was based entirely off  'Fox Searchlight Pictures'.




Fox Searchlight is a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox Studios, which is owned by News Corp.

We felt that 'Exceptional' would appeal to Fox Searchlight because of their proven track record of distributing high-quality British films, and targeting a similar target audience of 15-25 yrs for many of their films. Seen below are some example of recent Fox Searchlight films.

(500) Days of Summer
This film conveys a similar style to ours in terms of presenting the focal romantic relationship, where the boy takes a long time to get past his social insecurities.


The History Boys
This film presents traditional British humour in the same way that ours attempts to - the awkwardness of being a teenager being a key element of both.




Fox Spotlight films rarely cost more than $20 million to make, although many are a lot less - some are below $1 million. This means that Offbeat Productions wouldn't have to secure funding from external sources that might want to interfere with the production stages of the film.

Publicity Trail

Ideally we could kick-off the publicity trail by releasing exclusive film footage at an event like the San Diego Comic-Con, as comic book / popular culture fans are amongst those in our target audience, and the events are always very well publicised. By getting the key influential bloggers, reporters and journalists excited, this can help boost our Internet presence.

What happens at Comic-Con?
This is Marvel's comic-con showreel from 2009



After this, a lot of advertising would be done via Fox Searchlight's YouTube channel, where teaser trailers would be released and linked into the social networking sites like facebook and twitter, as young people are notorious for using these regularly.

Premiere

The Premiere would take place in Leicester Square, as the film would be made and set in the UK.
We would attempt to create an atmosphere like the 'Kick-Ass' premiere.



Release

Using Fox Spotlight's status in the US as a foothold, 'Exceptional' would be released simultaneously in the UK and US, seeing at those are the two key countries that the film would appeal to - and because the film has a young-adult target market, a simulanous release would prevent film piracy from stopping people going to the cinema. After this, 20th Century Fox would send the film out to its offices worldwide, and any distribition rights would be sold to any country not covered by Fox.

We would want major multiplexes to show our film, as we are intenting for a mass audience reach. The main three that we would target, due to owning many cinemas across the UK, are:

VUE
CINEWORLD
ODEON

31 Mar 2011

2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The two social catergories that are most clearly represented in our clip are Age and Gender. 


Age


All characters featured in the opening sequenced are aged 17; the lack of adult presence suggesting that these are independent individuals who are not dependent on any authority figure.


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The cast of Exceptional's opening clip
 In the establishing wide shot we can see that some stereotypical social groups are already emerging - to the right are the two conventional 'jocks', wearing varsity hoodies, which indicates their inclination towards sport. Angus (at the front) is sitting alone, suggesting that he is the outcast figure. His dark clothes connote that he wants to be unnoticed and his hunched over body language suggests a lack of confidence. To the right is Jessica who fills the traditional role of the love interest. We challenged the cliched idea of using a blonde actress for this part, but the flowery dress suggests she is a traditionally feminine character. The extras are of a range of nationalities, connoting that their are no racial barriers in this age-group in the film's setting.


Other action that represents age.
- Sitting quietly during class = a level of maturity
- Laughing at the Paper Throw = Not much empathy, the extras reaction shows the significance of  group mentality
- Bored Expressions = Stereotypical idea of teenagers disliking school.




Gender




Male


PhotobucketOur protagonist is a classic underdog. He is a teenager who doesn't feel accepted by the world around him, and to present this insecurity we represented him as being isolated and unconfident. He would be placed at the bottom of the male social scale because he is quiet - shown by the stronger use of voice-over than actual dialogue. We wanted to show this aspect of insecurity by showing him interacting with girls. The dialogue with Jessica is scripted to be stilted and uncomfortable to show that he is at the stage where he is unable to properly communicate with the opposite gender.


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The binary opposite to Angus's unconfident, unpopular male is presented through the use of stereotypical 'jock' figures who are portrayed as the alpha-males of the school community. The high five pictured in the screen shot above connotes that they behave in a laddish manner. They are more athletic than Angus, signifying that physical strength is an important feature of being on top of the social structure. The exaggerated movements of both characters also suggest that they perform for the benefit of the group in order to gain attention.

Female
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In our opening sequence the female characters are deliberatly not explained too clearly - this helps the audience view Jessica from Angus's perspective, where he doesn't know or understand too much about her, which in part is the reason for his inability to act normally around her. The Lichtenstein Freeze frame is used to show how Angus idolises her, and views her as separate from other people. The heart graphics that accompany this signify her role as a romantic interest within the film. Her clothes are used to suggest that she is a typical feminine character who becomes more submissive in the presence of a male character, but we challenged this assumption by having her confront the jocks about their bullying. When the boy she talks to stops provoking Angus as a result of her comment, this indicates that she has influence in the school and other people respect her.

1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our opening film sequence, EXCEPTIONAL, was of the action adventure genre, although it would be more commonly identified as the 'Superhero' sub-genre.

Our main inspirations for our film were Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn, 2010) and the Spider man trilogy (Sam Raimi, 2002, 2004, 2007), as we shared several features with these specific movies, such as the male teenage underdog dealing with a hostile social environment. The trailer for Kick-Ass is below.



Below, the trailer for Spider-man 2



The  traditional superhero conventions that we followed were:


question one table




Narrative Structure


We included some recognisable 'superhero movie' stereotypes within our opening clip in order to help the audience identify the genre.


The Hero - Angus
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The Love Interest - Jessica
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The secondary antagonists - The Bullies

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If we were to make a feature film of this, the primary antagonist would be a news reporter who becomes fixated on Angus's story. However, we felt including him in our opening sequence would push the plot along too quickly.


Todorov's Theory of Equilibrium


According to the film theorist Todorov, within all successful plots there is:
1) An Initial Equilibrium
2) A Disruption to the Equilibrium
3) A solution, that either resumes the original Equilibrium or creates a new Equilibrium.

For example in Spiderman, the equilibruim is that Peter Parker is an unpopular nerd. The disruption to this is when he is bitten and becomes Spiderman. The solution to this change is when Peter learns to accept his new identity as a Superhero. We applied this theory when deciding on a plot for the full length film, with the following results:


1) An Initial Equilibrium - Angus appears to be unpopular, unnoticed and unexceptional. He is telekinetic but chooses to keep this power secret.


2) A Disruption to the Equilibrium - Angus's power is revealed, causing a lot of media interest and villainous opposition.


3) A solution, that either resumes the original Equilibrium or creates a new Equilibrium.- Angus learns to respect himself and have confidence adapting to his new lifestyle, and wins the affections of Jessica.






Narrative Techniques


After researching many narrative techniques, we used some in our sequence in order to develop the forms and conventions of action adventure films.


At the start of the clip, the graphics intertwined with the starring cast and crew names are in the form of a comic-book flashback, which briefly reveals Angus's experiences with his powers.



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In which Angus avoids a gangster by using his powers
 The Codes of Roland Barthes


Roland Barthes believed that in films, especially within opening sequences, a series of codes are commonly used to engage the audience. The two main examples of his codes in our clip are listed below:

Action Codes


 Example from Kick-Ass 
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By having the boy film Kick-Ass, the audience will expect the superhero to now become public knowledge.

Examples from Exceptional

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Screen shot of the Paper Throw. Conventionally, an unprovoked attack on the protagonist this early on would suggest that the bullies will get their comeuppance during the film


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Screenshot of Jessica scolding the bullies. Indicates that she will later break away from her 'popular girl' stereotype.
Enigma Code

Example from The Dark Knight


 
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 When Harvey threatens to toss the coin, the audience is left in suspense as to what will happen next, so continue to watch to find answers.  



Example from Exceptional 


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Telekinesis Screenshot. Makes the audience question how and why Angus can use this power.

We used the opening graphics Spider-man 2 as influence for our project. See the clip below.




We felt that the use of graphics appropriately reflected the comic-book style we were aiming for, but unlike Spider-man 2, where the drawings summarize the events of the previous film, our drawings briefly show Angus's first experience with his power. However, we didn't want to put too much emphasis on this part of his background as the main action of the film begins with his power being a part of the original equilibrium that we've previously mentioned. Other aspects of our film that imitate the conventional format of superhero films include an introductory voiceover, an immediate introduction to the protagonist which clearly shows his low social status, and a suggestion as to what porblems he will have to overcome - in this case winning his love interest and dealing with his power.

Style


To create a comic book effect one of the things that we did was to include several Freezeframes in the style of Roy Lichtenstein, which quickly become tagged as 'Lichtenstein Freezes'. An influence for this aspect was 'Scott Pilgrim vs The World' (Edgar Wright, 2010), however we felt that full moving graphics would be very difficult to produce on non-sppecialised computers. Our pop-art style felt similar to the 80s comic book style, so we used thi, in addition to captions, to include extra information. An example of this can be seen below.


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The dialogue is minimal, allowing for more focus on the action of the piece. We used more CUs of Angus than of any other character in order to establish him as the lead, whilst the bullies were in a two shot, connoting that they were more of a gang than separate individuals.


Binary Opposites

We used binary opposites within our sequence to set up conflict for the film. Some of these can be seen below.

Popular vs Unpopular
Comfortable vs Uncomfortable
Normal vs Abnormal
Public vs Private
Female vs Male


Continuity Techniques





From examining this clip from Spiderman, we can see that many continuity techniques have been enforced. While the couple talk, the camera stays within the 180 degree rule, which we were careful to maintain during the conversation segment of Exceptional.


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180 degree rule: All shots of the conversation are taking from this side of the room.
Between the clip of Mary Jane's CU and the long shot of Peter walking towards camera, she turns around, which is shown through match on action editing. As this significantly improves the fluidity of the film, we ensured that we included this whenever any movement occured. An example of this would be when the bully throws the ball, and we then see the ball hit Angus, as demonstrated below.


match on action

The main way we were able to check continuity across different shoots was through taking photos on a digital camera to keep references of costumes, seating plans and scenery. Some of our shots can be seen below.



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Documenting test shots
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Initial Costume tryouts for the Bully
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Initial Costume Tryouts for Jessica
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Planning seating arrangements

23 Jan 2011

Individual Pitch

UNTITLED SUPER STALKER PROJECT

GENRE:
Action Comedy
PRIMARY AUDIENCE:
Males aged 14-25
SECONDARY AUDIENCES:
Females aged 14-25
Males 25-25
Males 10-14
         
Summary
After saving the city from peril, Ultragirl has decided that her services are no longer needed, and is happy to live as a B-list celebrity. Less happy is sci-fi / comic book obsessive Carl, who - missing the days where Ultragirl was active - decides to make his own 'missions' for her, much to her annoyance. Things get out of control when Carl convinces a real villian to attack, and Ultragirl and Carl are unwillingly forced to team together to bring the bad guys down.



OPENING SCRIPT

BOY: (V/O) When the dark descends, a hero will arise. She was courageous. She was powerful. She was beyond anything in your wildest imaginations. Her name? Ultragirl. She guarded our homes, patrolled our streets, busted our criminals. The city was safe, and everyone was thankful. Well, almost everyone.

Van & running sequence

ULTRAGIRL: Oh God..
BOY: I only want a few seconds to talk to you about -
ULTRAGIRL: Sorry, off duty
BOY: You haven't fought crime in months!
ULTRAGIRL: I don't need to, the city is safe, everyone's happy, job done.
BOY: But.. but we need a hero! Who are we supposed to look up to now?
ULTRAGIRL: Look, curly, I got places to go..
BOY: You know what? You've sold out! Look at you! You've singlehandedly crushed the dreams of Ultragirl fans everywhere! You should be ashamed of yourself-
ULTRAGIRL: (Gasps) LOOK A collectors edition of Spiderman Unlimited on sale for £20

BOY TURNS AND WHOOSH SHE'S GONE

BOY: (V/O) And that was the day I realised, a hero is nothing without a mission. And when there's no threats to a city, it's up to someone to create them.

EXAMPLE STORYBOARDS

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19 Oct 2010

Evaluation of Preliminary Exercise


'I've Been Expecting You'
Group 1E


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From L to R: Olivia, Narishma, Frank, James.
  I was in group 1E which contained Narishma, Frank, James and myself. We worked really well together and chose to equally split the pre-production, production and post-production tasks, which meant that we completed the preliminary exercise together. In Production, James and Frank became our actors, Narishma was the director and I took charge of Camera and Sound.







Pre-Production
We began the task by thinking about ideas that would fit the brief given to us:
To show 'A character opening a door, crossing a room, and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule'.

We began by noting down what we would need in order to create a good film:


By discussing situations in which this event mentioned in the brief might occur, we came up with the 'I've been expecting you' storyline, and our notes gradually took form as a script, displayed below. In this script we deployed Todorov's Theory of Equilibrium, in the manner seen below:

EQUILIBRIUM BOY is unaware that BOY WITH BABY wants his attention.    
DISRUPTION BOY WITH BABY is upset with BOY. They share conversation.
NEW EQUILIBRIUM: BOY WITH BABY decides that he does not want to talk to BOY.            







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The Completed Storyboard
Using the information from the script, we used notepads to create an initial storyboard for our short piece of film. We found this method very helpful because it allowed us to edit and re-order the shots quickly whenever needed. At this point, we started to add in details such as transitions and shot types. Because of this, we had to remember and enforce the 180 and 30 degree rules, because it would affect the angles we could shoot from. At this point, we went to look at our location, because it helped us know which side we should shoot the actors from, and where we should position the camera. As we were working in a small environment, this was vital as it would have been very difficult to shoot without planning our camera set-up.


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A clearer look at our storyboards.
This is where we began noting down transitions and sound details, as well as framing specifications.

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We also made a complete storyboard, some of which can be seen here

To aid us in planning the shoot, we compiled a shot list, which was much easier to do with the assistance of the storyboard, from which we could pick out each new frame with ease. At this point, we started focusing on continuity, especially as our sequence has its fair share of movement. We took down notes on anything that could break the continuity, such as using different hands to open doors, walking and spinning the chair at different speeds, and costume changes, to make sure that we were vigilant that these things would not happen during production.



As we had been set a strict one hour time limit in which to film any shots needed for the film, it was necessary that we had a shooting schedule so that we had an idea of the order in which we were going to shoot. This also helped us think about external factors that may have affected our production time, such as other groups needing to film in the same areas, and other pupils wandering around the school. Because of this, as you see below, we filmed the master shot before the rest of the conversation, and then moved outside to film the establishing shots. Although this meant that our continuity could possibly have been affected by moving back into the suite later, it meant that we didn't end up having other groups intruding on our sets. 

 


Production

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We shot on location in and around the Media Block, using a video camera, which was put on a tripod in all shots apart from the crab shot, because the crab movement could not be easily achieved with the tripod we were using. A Shot-Gun microphone was attached to the camera, and a pair of headphones allowed the camera user to listen to the sound being recorded. We mainly used the shotgun setting to get rid of background noise, but Ambient 1, which is more sensitive, was used in our establishing shot as it was taken from outside the building. Along with our pre-production documents, we used a clapperboard to record the order of our scenes, so that in post production we could quickly capture the individual takes.

Post Production

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The Adobe Premiere CS3 Computer Program.
 
We completed Post Production in the editing suite, using Adobe Premiere CS3 which is an advanced piece of editing software. After capturing our shots off the video-camera, we created a new timeline to order our shots in, and then used the razor tool to make seamless match-on-action sequences. We had a large selection of CUs, which allowed us to create a shot-reverse shot effect when cut together.







Reflections on the Task
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At the end of the session, I think we came up with a fairly good continuity sequence. Our pre-production was good enough that we were able to film the shots in the allocated time period, and could edit them quickly and efficiently on the computer. During production, we found that the other groups caused a disturbance to us -  as noted above, we had to adjust our shooting order so that it did not reflected the shot order in the final sequence, which meant that we risked our continuity. Fortunately, any differences between the Master Shot and our other shots have not yet been picked up on. Another major issue for us was background noise. Even with the microphone on the shotgun setting, I could hear people in other rooms when they talked loudly. We continued shooting because we recognised that there was very little we could do as other groups needed to shoot too. Although I was worried because the background noise was easily picked up by the microphone, this became less of a problem on the computer because the speakers were not so sensitive to noise. However, the background noise does not run smoothly through the CUs. In production, we planned to take a long shot to pick up background noise, in order to layer it over our other shots, but time constraints meant that this was not a possibility. In future, we would try to wrap the main shooting up earlier in order to do this. What worked well in our shot was the use of match-on-action, which ran very subtly, especially in the first few shots where our character walked through two sets of doors. In addition to this, our video has received the highest amount of hits on YouTube out of all the preliminary tasks; though this is probably due to the originality of our script, we are more than happy to claim full responsibility for it!


The preliminary task has really helped me recognise the important of pre-production, as generally I am too willing to leap straight in with a video camera. In the Media Examination, this would be a very bad idea as we are given time and equipment constraints, and any actors we may wish to use need to be previously notified of our shooting dates. Storyboards in particular are very useful in implementing the 180 and 30 degree rules, alongside other continuity theories. I think that the location must be looked at before we can start planning shot types, as size restrictions could mean that some shots would be impossible to take in some environments. When shooting, it is vital that we have a clear set of instructions as to the movement and dialogue in the script, as this means we won't have to re-assemble or re-shape footage using adobe premiere cs3, to make the scene make sense again.




14 Oct 2010

Applying Roland Barthes

CHICAGO

I am focusing on the opening sequence until the blackout after 'All That Jazz'



ENIGMA CODE
The main enigma code in the opening of Chicago is the identity of the two women who the camera follows during the evening. Velma, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, is clearly a nightclub artist, but from the introductory shot of her running down the alleyway towards the club, followed by the action of her tearing the name 'Veronica' away from a poster with both their names on it, makes the audience initially question who Veronica is. When the club owner enquires where her sister is, this is partially explained, but the audience then watch Velma washing blood off her hands, which creates suspense as they begin to wonder why this is - and specifically whether she killed her sister. Details about Velma's evening before the performance are held back during much of the film, which creates a sense of enigma. Roxy is even more enigmatic - we can see that she is fasinated by the show, wishes to imitate Velma and is commiting adultery on her husband, but other than that the audience has no idea who she is. This is significant as her identity becomes a theme of the narrative.

ACTION CODE
Again, there are two main action codes in this clip, one for each woman. We see Roxy taking a man up to her room, who is neither her brother nor her husband. However, as they go upstairs they bump into a neighbour who is told that he is her brother, but as she has seen them kissing the audience knows that the neighbour is disbelieving of this story. The camera pauses for an extra beat on the cutaway of the woman's CU in which she looks suspicious, which lets the audience know that what the neighbor has seen will be important later in the narrative.

Velma's action code comes right at the end of the sequence, as she finishes 'All That Jazz'. A policeman enters the club and looks up at her, and we briefly see her smirk defiantly before she sings the last line. When this event is linked with the earlier events of Velma washing blood of her hands, the audience can tell that the policeman's appearance is going to have an influence on the narrative.


SEMIOTIC CODE
Arguably, it is the costumes that contain most important semiotic codes in Chicago. Velma struggles into a black sparkly dress in the opening sequence, and wears strong bold make-up, noticeably very red lipstick.This represents the flashy showgirl culture that she is a part of, which during the film is a key part of her character, as her ability to create a popular public persona is the main reason for the press interest in her at the beginning. The fact that she is dressed entirely in black suggests that she is dark and mysterious, which is interesting as we later find out she has just killed her sister and husband.

Roxy, on the other hand, is dressed much more innocently, in a pale neutral dress, and a fur coat. This gives her a bland look, which is central to her own character as one of her motivations during the film is to become flashy and seductive like Velma. At this point, Roxy has no murderous incentive and therefore appears a lot less dark. However, when she stares at Velma she holds her jewellery up to her mouth, indicating a desire to become more elegant.

CULTURAL CODE
The only text that appears outside of the films narrative is the title - CHICAGO. It is written in capitals with traditional show lighting, which represents the glitz and glamour of the film. It is also worth noting that the title is created so that it appears to come from behind Roxy's eye, like it was part of her thoughts. This symbolises Roxy's obsession with the performance scene in the city.

SYMBOLIC CODE
Symbolic code can be drawn from most things that appear on screen, but I find the use of proxemics very interesting in this clip. Velma is up on stage to perform, meaning that Roxy stands below her looking up, which represents the positions of power during the films opening between the two characters. The power play between Roxy and Velma is continued throughout the film, and often standing above another character, or sitting whilst another must stand, represents the competition between them.

New Intstructions for weekend
1.  Identify the key actions within the opening - what kinds of actions are included and how is the narrative moved forward?
2.  Identify the enigma codes within the opening - what kinds of questions are posed and how is the audience meant to read these codes?
3.  Identify key characters and think about what they represent in the opening
4. Interpret the cultural codes in the opening.  What kind of knowledge is being drawn on? social/historical/political/art and culture etc.  Highlight the 3 most important references in the opening that help with audience understanding.
5.  Identify key themes and analyse how they are presented visually/technically.

12 Oct 2010

Continuity Sequences

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

"There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be"
Gene Wilder

Skip to 5:23 to see key sequence. Finishes at 6:38.


I looked at the sequence in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in which Willy Wonka walks down the red carpet from his factory to greet the children with golden tickets.

The sequence opens on a LS of a door in a wall which is closed. While the camera remains static, the door opens and Willy Wonka appears in the door frame. As he steps down some stairs, the camera pans down to keep him the central image of the long shot. It then cuts away to a shot of the cheering crowd, through this is taken from behind in order to keep the 180 degree rule. In the distance we can see Wonka walking down the carpet towards the camera. A matched cut moves the framing to a MCU, where Wonka stumbles closer to the camera, whilst the sound of the cheering crowd is bridged throughout the scene. Another cutaway is used, this time it is a CU on Charlie's face as he frowns- this is to show that he is worried about Wonka's condition. The noise from the crowd is still heard, but it is quietening in anticipation. We are then shown another LS of Wonka, still abiding by the 180 rule, but to improve the match on action he is now closer to the camera. The sound of footsteps becomes overlayed across the shots as he moves closer to the camera.

Two cutaways are then used to show the crowd reaction. first a wide shot of the crowd, followed by a MS of Charlie, Verruca and their respective guardians. This lets the audience become aware of the central characters. We then move to a new camera angle as wonka approaches the crowd - a profile LS of him walking, which pans into a WS of his back and the faces of the crowd - however because it is all filmed on the same side of the carpet, this technically doesn't break the 180 rule.  Another match-on-action cut is used as we switch to his front, and he removes his hat whilst walking at the same pace. A CU of several children makes the audience feel like they are nearer to Wonka, and we cut to a LS of Wonka facing the camera, where he walks forward, leans over and does a roly-polly, ending up on his feet, larger in the frame.We cut back to Charlie's CU where we see him smiling, which lets us know that he is happy again.

4 Oct 2010

PRINCIPLES OF CONTINUITY

"They say the camera never lies. It lies every day." Cesar Romero

PRE-PRODUCTION



  • STORYBOARDING




  • Storyboarding is vital when trying to make a sequence look seamless. Often, problems can be identified and rectified before picking up a camera, because the visual images help the crew see what shots don't look right when pasted together.  




  • SCRIPT
    If there's any action or dialogue in the scene, a script is needed in order to recreate, to perfection, any events, as the director will want to shoot the scene several times over. This allows some aspects of one take to be comfortably merged with aspects of another take.







  • PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
    The production schedule needs to be one of the final stages of pre-production. A production schedule means that for example scenes shot in the same location, or featuring actors in the same costume, can be shot consequetivly, even if the scenes to not follow eachother in the storyboard. This saves time and money, and also prevents natural influences from disrupting continuity, such as unwanted bad weather.






  • PRODUCTION



  • CAMERA TECHNIQUES




  • 180 degree rule: If the camera crosses the line of vision between two characters, the viewer will find it hard to keep track of the positioning in the scene, which will distract them from the plot.
    30 degree rule: If the framing stays the same, the angle of the camera pust either stay the same or jump by more than 30 degrees, or it will appear as if the camera has jolted, which looks unprofessional.
    Matched cuts: Action should never be repeated in the final cut, or it will be obvious that it has been filmed twice.
    Reaction Shots and Cutaways: These help the viewer identify what is important in the scene, and if really nessessary, can help divert from mistakes in other shots. In our project, for example, time constraints could mean that some problems could take up too much time to be rectified.




  • SHOT DURATION
    Each shot should be longer than nessessary - filming blank background before and after the scene means that editing can be much tighter. In the 'accident' project, we were not allowed any post-production time so had to second-guess the timings between each scene, which proved incredably difficult. If you have access to an editing programme, make sure your shots are as easy to work with as possible!





  • POST-PRODUCTION

    • EDITING FOOTAGE
      The previously discussed storyboard, in addition to a shot list, is very helpful in helping the editor line the shots up into the correct order on an editing programme. At this point, blank space can be deleted to increase the pace of the film, and any sequences set to specific music will have the sound put in. Hopefully, the editor will have time to look at rushes before starting his or her job, in which case any major problems can be reported back to the director and producer. Cuts will be used to link shots together so the audience can become emotionally involved with the narrative, while a fade could be used to signify the passing of time