Nathan's research on the Party/Coming Of Age genre

A party scene, coming of age is another idea [Written by Nathan]

My idea is to shoot the first 2 minutes of our main task incorporating ideas used in the examples below. For example point of view shots, blurry camera shots, shaky camera, flashes, smoky atmosphere, shaky camera and many more.

Examples include:

Misfits Season 4 Episode 6

Etta Bond's: Resolve (Music Video): http://sbtv.co.uk/2013/01/etta-bond-resolve-music-video/

Project X: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rl1TJG17Wk&safe=active

Daniel's research on the Action genre:

My group includes: Nile and Naithan

An Action scene can be exciting as there are a lot of fast cuts and editing and overall just lot to shoot a free running scene will be very hard as we need to think about where we could set the scene and the storyline.

My idea is to shoot the first few minutes of a free running scene and I have been inspired by these three movies:


James Bond Casino Royale

District 13

Research for our Main Task.

Group members:  Daniel and Nathan

I've been researching the Rom-Com film genre; the movies I've been looking at are the following:

Friends With Benefits (2011)

Just Go With It (2011)

She's Out Of My League

Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

This movie, I found quite interesting, because of the part in the trailer when Steve Carell (Cal Weaver) is putting on his suit in steps, the screen fades out and maybe I could use this to put the credits in effectively.  I could have a scene of the actor picking up his tie  then fade out to the actor's name (Nile Williams) then have the actor pick up his blazer and then fade out again to another part of the credits and so on.  I find this interesting because of a romantic guy coming to a date with a suit.

Mise-en-scene

Spider-man 2 - Train Scene

The genre of this film is action, as you can tell because of the way the man (Dr Otto Octavious) has eight limbs and is attacking Spider-man.  The mise-en-scene of this shot is a train, buildings.  The costume is one related to Spider-man and Dr Octopus. 

Continuity Editing

Continuity Editing..


Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire - First Task 

This scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a good match on action scene because of the way Harry's flying his broom and it looks so fluent and it was so well cut.  When he had to fly through the bridge in order to escape the Dragon, the fast cuts brought the tension and the fact that it was so smoothly cut made it feel as if no time at all had passed between the shots.

Spider-man 2 - Bank Scene

This scene uses editing well.  Because it's an action scene, there are loads and loads of cuts and some scenes where there is no editing at all, such as:  When Spider-man and Doc Ock are falling, it's all one scene to make the audience feel as if they're falling with him.

Preliminary Task

The genre of our film: Crime/Comedy

What influenced us to create what we've created:

Yusuf (A group member) is a big fan of scam films.  He's quite an expert on the genre.  Also, shows like the Real Hustle influenced our decision to make a film involving one of the most known scams: Somebody buying something, opening the case/box and finding nothing inside.  

Enjoy the video below containing a 'The Real Hustle' scam!

Storyline:

The film starts off with a phone conversation between Nile and Yusuf.  They're planning to meet inside a private building in order to exchange a camera for money but Nile doesn't know that Yusuf is planning to scam him into buying a camera which isn't actually in the box.  They meet on the top floor and exchange their goods.  Nile then looks into the box and finds a note.  Realising that he has been scammed he puts the note into the box turns around and walks out of the door behind him.  Nile then sees the not very smart Yusuf walking away instead of running and chases after him.

Script: 

Nile: Have you got the camera?

Yusuf: Yeah, I've got the camera.

Nile: OK, where are you?

Yusuf: Make your way to the third floor, yeah?

Nile: OK, I'll see you there.

Yusuf: Alright.

(Nile walks up 3 flights of stairs before finding Yusuf on the top deck with a bag containing the "camera")

Nile: Are you Yusuf?

Yusuf: Yeah, you're Nile? 

Nile: Yeah.

(Nile and Yusuf  both walk into the room together)

Nile:  Can I see the camera please?

Yusuf:  Here's the camera.  It's all in perfect condition (Yusuf takes camera out of box) You got the money?

(Nile gives Yusuf money) 

Nile: Is that enough? 

Yusuf: Yeah.

(Yusuf walks off)

(Nile finds a note in the box and realises he has been scammed)

Nile:  The guy has scammed me. 

(Nile walks through the door behind and sees Yusuf walking)

Nile: YUSUF! 

(Fade-out) 

Shots we used:

Low Angle Shot

Over-the-shoulder shot

Close-up shot of Camera

Point-of-view Shot 

Evaluation:

The finished preliminary task is above.  

I feel, especially because we only had 3 members in our group, that we were quite able to handle our roles without much hardship and difficulty.  Yusuf was in charge of the floor plan, Nathan was in charge of the Storyboard and I, Nile, was in charge of the script and where everything was going to be filmed.  

First of all, we all were going to do a prison scene in which involved drugs and one friend setting up another friend.  We then presented our idea to our media teacher and she helped us improve the film.  We ended up, as a group, deciding that we should make a, sort of, crime/comedy film containing a scam artist and the victim.  What mainly influenced our decision was all the crime shows my friend, Yusuf, watched.  

We had some difficulty when filming our film; because we had to film it in college we couldn't exactly expect there to be no background noise.  We had to put up with students and staff coming in and out of our shots.  At one point, we had to wait 20 minutes to film one scene because it was the lower school's lunchtime when we were filming and there were students needing to go toilet, students needing to go meet teachers and staff needing to walk past us as we were shooting.  Also, there was the issue of continuity in a sense that everyone had to be wearing the same clothes as they had on when we shot our first scenes and some of us came in to college wearing different clothes so we had to film every scene again - extremely tiring.  We also conformed to the 180 degree rule when filming mine and Yusuf's conversation in the room which was relatively easy.

The camera angles we used weren't too difficult to use.  We used the low-angle shot, high angle shots and POV (Point of View) shots.  We also used a dolly shot, which involved us using a school trolley, placing the camera on top of it and wheeling along the camera in the scene which has Yusuf walking down a corridor.  We used a CCTV shot but didn't include it in the final production because we realised it didn't exactly go too well with the match-on-action we had to have in this film.  This was probably the most difficult shot because we didn't have anything to place the camera onto, Nathan (the cameraman) had to stand on a chair, holding the camera above his head in order to film it - it took us numerous attempts.

Overall, our preliminary task did go according to plan.  I just wish we had a bit more time to really edit the shots and get the camera angles we needed.  I think if I had another chance to do this, I would concentrate more on the camera angles we actually needed and how an actual film is shot - in other words, do a bit more research!  

Film Reviews

Pitch Perfect..

I went to see Pitch Perfect over the Christmas Holidays with a couple of friends and it was quite a good film.  Good plot and a good storyline and the acting was brilliant. 

The film is about a young student trying to find her way in life.  She's quiet and she's a keeps-herself-to-herself kind of girl.  She then finds interest in a group called The Bellas.  At first, the leader of the group, Aubrey, doesn't like Beca much as she feels she's taking over her role and then as the film progresses, realises she may actually need her guidance to bring the group to success. 

I'd fully recommend this film to anyone with an eye for these coming-of-age, comedic university movies.  It mixes romance, jealousy and competition theme very well... See the trailer below!

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 Trailer 3 (2011)

Overview: All of the Harry Potter films are about the life of a ordinary - seeming - boy who then learns he's a wizard on his 11th birthday.  He makes his way to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry; throughout his years in the school he learns an evil wizard who calls himself Lord Voldemort, makes 3 of his future best friends:  Hermione and Ron.  He's good at Quidditch (a wizard game played on brooms) and in his 6th year, he's sent on a quest by Albus Dumbledore to bring about the death of Lord Voldemort once and for all. 

Throughout the series, we are mainly with Harry Potter as the story is about him, he is the main protagonist and hero.  We're basically Harry Potter, when Harry Potter goes to battle we go to battle.  We're made to, in a sense, hate Voldemort in this series because of the fact that we learn that Voldemort killed his parents and his death-eaters have killed some of his friends/family (Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Romilda Vane)

The use of flashbacks and editing in this film is used very affectively because when it happens, it's like we go back in time and when Harry looks into the Pensieve the use of long cuts in the scene makes us believe the flow of the film.  If they had done an elliptical cut showing him looking into the Pensieve and then cutting to us being in the Pensieve it would've looked very unconvincing but they pan the camera.  They're first looking up at him from inside the Pensieve and then the camera pans down using effects so it feels like as if Harry has dropped through the Pensieve into Dumbledore's memories.

On the whole, I'd give the film an 7/10 mainly because the storyline in the book was way better than the one they used in the film.  The end battle between Harry and Voldemort would've been much better if they had been in the great hall and they had a long talk before anything happened.  It was a good film though, excluding those faults.

The Unborn (Trailer) (2009)

This trailer fits into the horror genre conventions because it has childhood issues, it is religious and it has insanity, supernatural & good versus evil in it. 

The supernatural, the religious and the childhood issues relates to the unborn child.  The unborn child who wants to be born but can't because he's dead. 

The insanity relates to the protagonist because she's becoming insane - well, insanely scared.

This film uses camera angles very cleverly too.  When the woman awakes to find her dead son in her  bed, the camera is on a high angle shot.  To make us feel like we are looking down on her from heaven.