Wednesday 26th January
Yesterday was our first opportunity to start filming shots for our thriller sequence. Sadly, the only people available in our group were me and Krisztina. Hamsa couldn’t make it because he was ill but promised he would definitely be present on Wednesday. Qiu-Ling had to celebrate her Chinese new year so she couldn’t make it either as well as Wednesday she will be absent. I and Krisztina decided that we had to try and get some shots done by ourselves as we didn’t really want to waste any time. We planned to go to the cemetery and take out the video camera overnight. Unfortunately, this wasn’t possible as we weren’t aware that we had to book the camera a couple of days in advance in order to take it out overnight. As we only had an hour left to use the camera and bring it back, we decided to get some shots of me nearby. We went into the car park and took a medium shot of me walking pass a car. We took a few different shots of the same action and decided to call it a day as we didn’t have all our group members to help us. We tried our best by ourselves but obviously more people were needed in order to work better. We finally decided that we were going to wait till Wednesday when Hamsa comes and we could all go to the cemetery together.
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Monday 26 January 2009
Our second film practice
The preliminary film
Our task was to create a video clip on two people having a short conversation sitting down. We had to include at least one match cut in our clip. The group was me, Krisztina, Hamsa and Qiu-Ling. As a group we decided that Krisztina and Hamsa were going to be acting in the clip however; all of us were still going to participate in camerawork and editing as well as sound.
To begin with, we planned to make our clip appear interesting and mysterious by recording krisztina from different angle shots such as close-up and long shots. However; we will not be showing her entire face. This creates a sense of tension and suspense towards who she is and what the short clip is roughly about.
I think that our second practice film went particularly well. This is because, we were a little bit more organised and experienced in how to use the camera better than the first practice. We also remembered the 180 degrees rule that we have been taught. As well as this we learnt a new skill in match cutting and were excited to try it. Our film didn’t go as well as we wanted to as our editing skills were not really good. This is possibly because we haven’t had much practice on editing as we spent most of our time recording different shots for our clip. On the other hand, our second practice film went fairly well compared to our first one.
Between my first and second practice films I have learnt a few things. For instance, I learnt about match cutting and how important it is to use it in a clip. It shows a character for different point of views such as a character walking into a room from a long shot and then a character walking into the room from a side view. It allows the audience to view the character doing the same action in a different view. I have also learnt that our group needs more practice on editing as we appear to be a little bit weak when it comes to editing our video clip.
I feel that we tried to follow the forms and conventions of real films. For instance we did over the shoulder shot of Hamsa on the computer, exposing a bit of the computer screen. This is shown in many films as the camera comes closer to a person in an isolated room to build tension. This shot is imitated by our group as we used the camera to get closer and closer to Hamsa as if the camera is Krisztina walking into the room. The lighting we used was natural which followed the forms and conventions of some real films as they use white, lighting in order to show that everything doesn’t appear out of the ordinary however; they may use music and sound in order to suggest a sense that the movie is a thriller. We used a low angle shot from Krisztina’s feet and the camera moves up almost reveals her face but it doesn’t which plays with the audience. It makes them feel as if they are about to see her face but they don’t. This is used in many films in order to build suspicion. The Mise en scene we used were table, chairs and a computer screen. This is used in real films as an important scene could be set in a normal ordinary room.
The practice film allowed me to make comments on representation as it outlines a significant the conversation between two people in the scene.
Our task was to create a video clip on two people having a short conversation sitting down. We had to include at least one match cut in our clip. The group was me, Krisztina, Hamsa and Qiu-Ling. As a group we decided that Krisztina and Hamsa were going to be acting in the clip however; all of us were still going to participate in camerawork and editing as well as sound.
To begin with, we planned to make our clip appear interesting and mysterious by recording krisztina from different angle shots such as close-up and long shots. However; we will not be showing her entire face. This creates a sense of tension and suspense towards who she is and what the short clip is roughly about.
I think that our second practice film went particularly well. This is because, we were a little bit more organised and experienced in how to use the camera better than the first practice. We also remembered the 180 degrees rule that we have been taught. As well as this we learnt a new skill in match cutting and were excited to try it. Our film didn’t go as well as we wanted to as our editing skills were not really good. This is possibly because we haven’t had much practice on editing as we spent most of our time recording different shots for our clip. On the other hand, our second practice film went fairly well compared to our first one.
Between my first and second practice films I have learnt a few things. For instance, I learnt about match cutting and how important it is to use it in a clip. It shows a character for different point of views such as a character walking into a room from a long shot and then a character walking into the room from a side view. It allows the audience to view the character doing the same action in a different view. I have also learnt that our group needs more practice on editing as we appear to be a little bit weak when it comes to editing our video clip.
I feel that we tried to follow the forms and conventions of real films. For instance we did over the shoulder shot of Hamsa on the computer, exposing a bit of the computer screen. This is shown in many films as the camera comes closer to a person in an isolated room to build tension. This shot is imitated by our group as we used the camera to get closer and closer to Hamsa as if the camera is Krisztina walking into the room. The lighting we used was natural which followed the forms and conventions of some real films as they use white, lighting in order to show that everything doesn’t appear out of the ordinary however; they may use music and sound in order to suggest a sense that the movie is a thriller. We used a low angle shot from Krisztina’s feet and the camera moves up almost reveals her face but it doesn’t which plays with the audience. It makes them feel as if they are about to see her face but they don’t. This is used in many films in order to build suspicion. The Mise en scene we used were table, chairs and a computer screen. This is used in real films as an important scene could be set in a normal ordinary room.
The practice film allowed me to make comments on representation as it outlines a significant the conversation between two people in the scene.
Thursday 22 January 2009
21/01/09 Fouzia Abbasi
Today's lesson with Dan gave us more ideas about our thriller and how to develop our ideas. Hamsa came up with an idea that we should focus on one character more in order to make the thriller more dramatic and better focused. We also edited our idea. Instead of having the stalker be the main character's girlfriend, we decided that the stalker should be another girl character who is obsessed with a boy and hates his girlfriend. We went with this idea because we felt that it made much more sense than our initial idea.
During this lesson, we changed our ideas about the location. Instead of going with our first idea and having the stalker pick off petals from a rose in a park, we changed it to the person being in a cemetary. This would make our mise en scene appear much stronger as it has connotations of death and murder. Our idea is now, the obsessive stalker reflecting into a flashback of how they followed the happy couple and killed one of them.
As well as this, Me and Qiu-Ling also switched characters. Qiu-Ling was going to be the obsessive character however; I will be taking her role as she will be away from two of our media lessons. We wanted to do this because Qiu-Ling's initial character would be in most parts during the opening scene and if she misses one week of filming, we thought it would be best if I did it instead. We planned to firstly, do the filming of me in the cemetary picking off petals from a rose and then doing the shots of Qiu-Ling and Hamsa being a happy couple and being stalked by me. Krisztina will be helping us organise what we should do in the scene and how we should do it as she would do the main directing.
On Monday, I plan to bring in my costume for the filming and Me, Krisztina and Hamsa will be going to a cemetary in Stoke Newington to film the first part of our scene.
During this lesson, we changed our ideas about the location. Instead of going with our first idea and having the stalker pick off petals from a rose in a park, we changed it to the person being in a cemetary. This would make our mise en scene appear much stronger as it has connotations of death and murder. Our idea is now, the obsessive stalker reflecting into a flashback of how they followed the happy couple and killed one of them.
As well as this, Me and Qiu-Ling also switched characters. Qiu-Ling was going to be the obsessive character however; I will be taking her role as she will be away from two of our media lessons. We wanted to do this because Qiu-Ling's initial character would be in most parts during the opening scene and if she misses one week of filming, we thought it would be best if I did it instead. We planned to firstly, do the filming of me in the cemetary picking off petals from a rose and then doing the shots of Qiu-Ling and Hamsa being a happy couple and being stalked by me. Krisztina will be helping us organise what we should do in the scene and how we should do it as she would do the main directing.
On Monday, I plan to bring in my costume for the filming and Me, Krisztina and Hamsa will be going to a cemetary in Stoke Newington to film the first part of our scene.
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Fouzia 19/01/09
In Andrew’s lesson, we had an A3 sheet of sugar paper to put down all our ideas about the opening sequence to our thriller. We focused on key images/icons, music/sound, settings and locations, lighting, camerawork, storyboard, audience and production schedule. Together, we came up with what we needed in each of these elements and agreed on the best ideas. We thought mainly about the key image/icon that we were going to use for our thriller, as it would be symbolic throughout our clip. We decided that we were going to use a rose to symbolise our sequence as it a romance thriller theme. We also came up with a good title which is ‘love me, love me not. We all agreed with this idea and decided to get straight into planning the mise en scene, camera, sound and editing for our thriller. We wanted to leave the storyboard for Dan’s lesson because we were not completely sure about our story for the thriller and needed to discuss it with Dan before continuing.
However; we managed to come up with many ideas for technical elements which would be put together to make our thriller. Firstly, as well as using the rose as a key image in our sequence we decided to add another iconography which were polaroid images. The music and sound we decided to use for our opening sequence were sounds of heartbeats which would build tension as it would allow the audience to enter the feeling of the character. We have also decided to use steady beats involving voilins and strings. This would show the audience that our thriller is romance based. There are a variety of camera shots which we will use for our sequence. For instance, establishing shots to show the location and isolation of the character within the scene. We will be using a few handheld camera shots to create an effect of a character being followed or stalked. There will be tracking shots which will allow the audience to feel as if they are following a character and seeing what they are doing. We are going to have a panning shot of the polaroid images being scattered on the floor or table to reveal the images to the audience. We were thinking about the setting and location of our thriller which would preferbably be in a park, dark alleyway and London street. The lighting we will be using for our sequence would be bright and natural at the daytime however; we will turn the lighting to darker tones in order to reflect the thrilling mood of our sequence while a character is under tension. We decided that our thriller was going to be for both teenagers and adults as it could be for someone who is interested in a romance thriller genre. We came up with a production schedule to make sure that we have our timing and date under control. We decided that we were going to be doing 2 weeks of filming and 2 weeks of editing to make it balanced.
However; we managed to come up with many ideas for technical elements which would be put together to make our thriller. Firstly, as well as using the rose as a key image in our sequence we decided to add another iconography which were polaroid images. The music and sound we decided to use for our opening sequence were sounds of heartbeats which would build tension as it would allow the audience to enter the feeling of the character. We have also decided to use steady beats involving voilins and strings. This would show the audience that our thriller is romance based. There are a variety of camera shots which we will use for our sequence. For instance, establishing shots to show the location and isolation of the character within the scene. We will be using a few handheld camera shots to create an effect of a character being followed or stalked. There will be tracking shots which will allow the audience to feel as if they are following a character and seeing what they are doing. We are going to have a panning shot of the polaroid images being scattered on the floor or table to reveal the images to the audience. We were thinking about the setting and location of our thriller which would preferbably be in a park, dark alleyway and London street. The lighting we will be using for our sequence would be bright and natural at the daytime however; we will turn the lighting to darker tones in order to reflect the thrilling mood of our sequence while a character is under tension. We decided that our thriller was going to be for both teenagers and adults as it could be for someone who is interested in a romance thriller genre. We came up with a production schedule to make sure that we have our timing and date under control. We decided that we were going to be doing 2 weeks of filming and 2 weeks of editing to make it balanced.
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