AS Media Coursework

Razia Mohammed

Research Record

180 Degree Rule

The 180° rule is a filming rule in which the camera has to show a continued left/right relationship of the characters or objects. If the camera moved to the other side, called crossing the line, it shows a break in continuity. The new shot is called reverse shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oci-ZgHvQCk

This YouTube video shows a perfect example of how you correctly use the 180° rule and how it helps continuity and also how if you break the 180° it become chaotic.

Match Action

Match action refers to an editing method which cuts from one shot to another view of the first shots action. It puts two different views of an action together to create a visual bridge,

which is seamless and uninterrupted.

Traffic, Steven Soderbergh (2000)

Shot Reverse Shot Shot reverse shot is a filming technique, an example of eye line match, where a character is

looking at another character, often off screen and the other character is seen looking back. Shot reverse shot is often used in over the shoulder shots. As they are on opposite sides its assumed that they are looking at each other. It’s a form of continuity editing that shows the audience action is happening linearly, logically and chronologically.

Sin City Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez (2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oci-ZgHvQCk

This video shows shot reverse shot, in a dialogue but also in other ways shot reverse shot can be used. By using shot reverse shot in my project I am to show continuity between characters and reactions but also action from multiple perspectives.

Production Log

Day oneManaged to get all the shooting done in one

day. This means I have more time on editing and don’t have to worry about any continuity errors in the mise-en-scene like the costume, setting and any difference in sounds that can be heard.

The shooting was okay for first time filming. Found the tripod to be very limiting as I couldn‘t get it to be tall enough. So this meant that I had to experiment by using both the tripod and handheld filming. The handheld filming was easier because I controlled how high I held the camera, how I panned and tracked. However the tripod was useful for the over the shoulder shots because it was in a fixed place continuously and meant that there weren’t any shaking shots.

During the shooting of the film I found that I needed to have a script because no one could remember what they just said in free verse and it would be difficult to edit the film due to the change in conversation between filming. For my main task I need to make a script beforehand and distribute it so people know what they’re doing and when.

(my script actually was in the shot- it was just an A4 piece of paper with the theme of the conversation)

The shooting took place in a classroom in college, so there may be some additional, unintentional audio of people in the background. This is called “ambient sound”. This is sound that is already present and cannot be helped.

Preliminary video This is my preliminary video which I made for my coursework piece. Originally I worked with Sean and Caitlin so my work is slightly different.

Though personally this means that I have experience in all task so am better understanding of what work goes into making the film project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ACzS5bjFng (youtube link to my task)

Editing

I also uncovered technical and aesthetic flaws. The lighting is different between the shots so it

looks like it has been shot at different times when in fact it as shot on the same day. This is a continuity problem that I will be aware of for my actual filming – lighting has to be controlled. In retrospective what I should have done was move characters from one point of the room to another as their wasn’t any reason for them to sit in those specific seats.

Editing is finished. The editing software used was iMovie as the computer used was a Apple computer. The end product is approximately 33 seconds in length. There were a lot of problems with the actual editing. It was hard to get the clips exactly as I wanted them so there are little jumps and pauses which disrupt the flow of the video.

The audio is of poor quality between the characters. In shot reverse shot we see that the level of audio dips dramatically so I need to aware of this when I am shooting my main task so people can hear what is happening.

At the beginning of the clip its shaky as it was shot without the tripod because it wasn’t tall enough to fit in the person. This needs to be controlled because a shaky shot is obviously different from the rest and won’t fit the film. The only time it is appropriate is when you need to convey to the audience that the jerky movement is done on purpose, for example you may use a handheld camera when you want to show someone stumbling and falling.

The transition from one shot to another is quite abrupt. This is a technical fault. This shouldn't have happen and I need to make the transitions flow to make it seem like it fits together rather then being too separate. For my main task I need to make sure that when editing the film I have to be aware that this can happen and take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen i.e. shoot a long, chronological scene.

By adding a title page and final page it gives the film some context. The basic black with white text make it seem unfussy and straight forward with no hype behind it.

Storyboard for prelim task and changes made

Missing

Missing Missing

Not a frontal shot but angled

Not correctly proportional to how it was actually shot.

It had to be placed like this because it was scanned using a printer and uploaded as a pdf and PowerPoint wouldn’t let me insert it in its original format.

Changes to storyboard continued

In my story board for the preliminary task I didn’t include visual representation of the title page and end page for the film which I subsequently added during the editing stage. First I made changes at the beginning and the end by adding a slide that had the title, “The Conversation” and a last slide which has the names of the people who participated and editing done by me.

Research

Examination of 2 minute opening for films

After looking at a range of films I have learnt some interesting techniques used by directors in the introduction of the characters, drama and genre. One that really stuck for me was the film, “Don’t Look Now”, a thriller- horror film which uses two separate settings, the external and internal and both father and daughter using the motif of water. The director has used cross cutting in editing the film so it cuts from one character to the other to show continuity as the actions are the similar but also to create tension for the audience because it gives a sense of foreboding. The water and the colour red are important symbols used by the director because the father and the daughter are both centred by the water and either the red coat or red mark on the slide and water in both cases obliterates it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8yqq6uBrKc

Stranger than Fiction” also used a clever introduction with a voiceover and text on the screen to give the audience an indication of the character he is.

Kill Bill volume 1” the opening of the film is so dramatic, both though visual aspects on screen and the music used that it draws the audience into the action. The effects of music are most notable in this extract. Its shows how music can be used to heighten the pleasure for audiences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew5EYd5_i6M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDwTQ57YyzI

“Son of Rambow” uses contrasts to make the opening of the film. By contracting the actions of two young boys it tells the audience two things- firstly they somehow become linked and secondly they have nothing in common apart from being outsiders, sot it builds a friendship of sorts amongst them and causes the audience to reminisce. The heavy use of the film Rambo gives the audience some clue about the film.

Halloween ( the original) is one of the most effect openings of them all. The use of black and white filming, point of view shots to look like voyeuristic. The music also adds to the atmosphere but the most shocking part of the film is the cross from point of view shots to a frontal shot and you see the murderer to be a small child. This is shocking because no-one would expect a child to commit such an act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxRGw0l-b18

The purpose of a title sequence was to “communicate…information effectively”. The purpose of the title sequence is to information of the following:

1.Details of cast and crew.2.The film's title.3.An introduction to character or character type.4.Indication of place.5.Indication of historical period.6.Information regarding mood and tone.7.Introduction to signature theme tune.8.Information about genre.9.Questions that the viewer finds intriguing.10.Patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film.

Mise en scene and cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film.

How are the two elements (opening a film and title sequence) combined?

Title sequence and opening analysed The opening sequence of a film and the title sequence are two components of

the film which are intertwined. Individual they serve 2 different purposes. The purpose of the opening of a film is to attract the audience attention and start the beginning of the story, though it has been subverted before to show the ending of the film like Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” which started at the end of the film and worked backwards. The opening of the film has to have such an affect on the audience that it would causes them to remember what happened and be a bridge for the whole of the plot. Without an effective opening sequence the audience would feel confused and unfulfilled therefore not fulfilling one of three primary reasons people watch films- to escape into another world.

Title Sequence The title sequence on the other hand is a completely different element of the film.

Pre-Saul Bass the title of the sequence was just something to inform the audience about the title of the film. Post-Saul Bass he turned the title sequence into a “commodity” by his use of graphics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnpJ_KdqZE the URL for his first film opening “Man with the Golden Hand” which uses the hand as a focus point, a motif of the film but subconsciously fed to the audience the overall plot.

The sound track that plays with this is of music associated with this era- trumpets and saxophones and big band orchestra but also the job of the main character.

Analysis of “Man With The Golden Hand”

1.In this title sequence there is lots of movement of white against a black background. This separates the two different parts of the graphic but can also be a representation of heroin- the key focus of the film.

2.One thing which is easily picked up on is the lack of faces of the actors he has omitted to use. Instead of cashing in on the actors face, Bass has purposefully used his graphics background and animation.

3.This is one of the of the key things about Bass opening titles- the lack of faces but shapes. For ‘Man with the Golden Arm’ continually uses the rectangular shapes to end with a twist arm, again to show heroin addiction.

5.In our main task we cannot however do such an elaborate title sequence due to the limitation of the software (iMovie). The movement is limited to the title sequence already provided on the software.

4.This is what his made part of this catalogue of work- though with ‘Big Country’- he uses a voiceover to illustrate the changes in the film the audience wouldn't’t have seen i.e. him moving to the Wild West but also the complete isolation for civilization as he would have know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDKac0NYyIE&feature=fvwrel

This is a faux title sequence for Kill Bill Volume 1. This is an excellent example of how someone has used Saul Bass techniques to create a title sequence. It shows how Bass work is so simplistic but so effective.

An example of someone using Bass technique

Creativeness of Saul Bass

Main task

Risk Assessment Risk Why

Getting stuck in the lift Due to the amount of time we spent shooting in the lift we had to be aware of the risk that Sean may get stuck in the lift.

Hand trapped in the door Sean had to open the door quite a few time and he could have had his hand closed in the door if it closed to fast.

Obstruction in a public area We shot outside college, on the High Street outside HSBC bank. We had to make sure that their was no obstruction that restricted our movement. We also had to be aware that we didn’t cause any problems for members of the public.

Timeline Originally in pdf format but it wouldn’t imbed correctly in that form so I had to print screen and cut in paint.

GenreOur chosen genre is action

thriller. It is based around the actions of a contract killer.

Script Our script is only 5 words. We

want it to be full of drama. The minimalistic dialogue is suppose to be effective because it makes the beating more dominate to the audience mind. The script also a touchstone for us because it tells us what we are supposed to do for each shot to the next.

Characterisation

We have made a detailed characterisation of the contract killer so that we could have knowledge of the character, what his strength and weaknesses are. We also have built him up to be this real life person people can relate to even though it is only going to be about 2 minutes of the opening. If we know the direction of the film

See Appendix 1

Main task

Appendix 1

Main taskMise-en-scèneAs part of the mise-en-scène, the

setting, the costumes, props and lighting.

We have so far have the following props and costume needed:

Fake bloodSuit for the hit man character Formal shoesSkateboard/ tray to see how we

can get a low shot but all smooth with no jarring

Fake id for the person getting hit for the audience to see who and why.

SoundAtmospheric music to build tension Dialogue- what is actually said during

the scene so the audience can understand the context and the actions

fighting sounds when he is beating someone up to be add realism to the scene

Cash machine sounds- to continue the arc of actions.

Special effects So far we haven't decide on any

effects to be added i.e. black and white, sepia, text added but this may change during the editing.

Mise-en-scene- costumes Stereotypical costume of the lower class

Be accepted as a victim

Hoodies helps hide the face

The college pass can be see which gives his an age range.

Smart/ tidy

Immediately gains more respect then the victim even though he is obviously the villain

The suit helps to differentiates the two characters.

Black = sinister

RolesRole Person

Filming Caitlin

Editing Razia

Mise-en-scene

Sean

Acting

StoryboardThe storyboard for the main task is now complete. We each have our own storyboard

which has a few differences i.e. I have done a storyboard for each shot but Caitlin has done a detailed explanations that explains each shot.

In the storyboard we have used a few shortcuts to make it easier for us. We have broken up the action by using cuts to show the potential audience the directors, producers, distributors and title of the film because it allows us not to include lots of film of a person going from one location i.e. from the college to the bank. This allows use not to film a lot but also to stay within the required 2 minutes of film allowed. The technique is called ellipsis. An ellipsis is an abbreviation of media to not include certain aspects for various reasons i.e. timing issue like us, not relevant to the overall product or pointless to include. Secondly the pages allows use to shoe the audience techniques details that would be shown in the beginning of a full feature film anyway albeit were using it as a full screen rather then small text on the corner of the film.

In the filming we are using a lot of low shots, to get shots of the feet to give the character a sense of ambiguity and keep the audience guessing as to the gender, ethnicity and build of the character. While the shots are low, they aren't necessarily going to be low angle shots because we are devising a way to film the shots on either a tray or skateboard so we don’t have any shaky camera. Our title would be the last thing that would appear on the screen, though the text style hasn't be chosen because it would be added in post-production and we would want it

to reflect the genre and what kind of film we want it to be.

Storyboard

Changes between storyboard and filming

Missing

Not viable to use – the camera shot used wouldn't flow easily and would have wrecked the what we did get unexpectedly that worked better.

EditingThis has been the more stressful and time consuming part of the whole

project.

At this stage everything has to be prefect, there cannot be any continuity errors or mistakes of any kind. It especially makes it harder that since developing the storyboard we have made changes to what we filmed and left out. This means you have to twice as vigilant to make sure that the storyline makes sense to the audience. In the editing stage we have also had to add transitions which we didn’t account for in the storyboard aspect as to move the story along initially I though that shooting at different camera angles would be enough but they aren’t. constantly shooting means even more errors. We have had to re-shoot some scenes already due to continuity errors i.e. the red tie was missing during the first shooting. Though we have been lucky as we didn’t want the face in the shot we don’t have to worry about changes to the hair.

EditingMy micro aspect within the production

of the film product is editing. My work was in the post-production. I had to take all the footage and make a plausible, understandable story to present to the audience.

Due to how it was filmed it wasn’t so difficult to edit the footage but the greatest difficulty was the movement from one shot to another i.e. walking to pressing the life button.

To tackle this what I did was used transition- specifically a cut away transition. This means it breaks down the action an enable us as a group to move from one shot to another with ease.

Another worry was matching the action and dialogue . We recorded the dialogue in post- production. This was hard because we had to find someone to be the sinister figure. Though in our specification we stated it would be a male and the protagonist would be honourable and not hurt female but we had to use a female as we couldn’t find the perfect male. As it is with the dialogue you can hear some flaws which I can’t fix. You can hear when we hit the mouse to stop and start the microphone. This cannot be changed because it will always occur as we used a built in microphone in the computer.

Something different about out film to everyone else is we used a black and white effect throughout our film. The majority of the time B&W is used is signify a difference in time i.e. a flashback, a prologue, though films have been fully shot in B&W i.e. Sin City. The black and white adds more depth to our film product because I feel it adds more significance to the film. Watching it in its raw form, even put together doesn’t make it seem like a adequate film product that can be market. That is the aim of the producer, to make a film that will sell.

Though sound is not the most aspect of the whole film product is was to me because we need the sound for the film to complete. We spent ages looking for the music as part of the specification was to have copy-free royalty free. We tried to make our own but none of us are creative so we search the internet for music. We managed to find some at RoyaltyFree music. The music is free to us as long as we don’t use it for commercial reason and for person use.

Logos The top one was our original logo that I made in Paint! and then transferred to iMovie. Fliss had to help because iMovie doesn’t make it easy to add an image. Luckily when it finished during formatting we added an effect (X-ray) to make it seem more like a cross hair being used.

Another effect that has been used to manipulated the logo is that it has been “Ken Burns”. This means it moves around the screen. This is helpful because it helps to the realism that it is an actual cross hair’s seeking a target.

Main task

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmMfiK7_PRY

The URL link for my main task which is on YouTube.

Audience response

Attachment 3.. Questionnaire used for audience feedback.

AS Media Coursework Questionnaire ‘Waste Money’ 1. Age: 16-17 18-19 20+ 2. Gender: Male Female 3a. What genre did you think film belongs to? (Combo’s included) Horror Thriller Comedy Romance Fantasy Action 3b. Why? 4. What do you think the title “Waste Money” implies? 5. Did you think the film being in black and white helped or had

no effect on the film? Help No effect No opinion 6. What does the lack of dialogue do for the film? 7a. Did you think any of the camera angles were effective? Yes No No opinion 7b. If answered yes which camera angles and explain why

8. Which of the following emotions did you feel at not knowing the identity of the character?

Annoyed Intrigued Not bothered

9. Did the musical underscore fit the genre? Yes No No

opinion 10a.. Have you noticed any continuity errors? Yes No 10b. If you did, what did you notice and

approximately when in the film? 11. Do you have any opinions on how make

improvements to the film?

Audience response

We have identify our target audience as being majority male but our audience sample was majority female. Though the sample doesn’t fit our target audience it was a good experience to understand the gender that could potential be excluded from paying audiences.

Unfortunately not one of the questions on the questionnaire was about how well they liked the extract. That is an important question and it was a mistake that it was excluded. Verbal communication did show a like for the film but the audience sample were to close to the makers which could have skewered the results and opinions.

Audience response

Genre

A genre is a characterization of a film that the majority agree on.

Out of list of 5 the majority said thriller which is what we aimed the film to fit.

The justification was quite unique and quite reasonable.

Audience responseSomething that emerged from the audience survey is that the name was obscure and no one really understood the significance of it. The term is an correct term which refers to the payment a hit man receives for undertaking a job. In the end we decided to keep the name because it is significance to the content of the film. We used a “Cracked” font only found on iMovie because it had the effect of bullet holes and looks beaten. We used the colour red because the common connotation of it is blood and danger, two key motifs of our film product.

Audience response

Question 5 from our questionnaire was in questioning the audience about the Black and White effect we used. We had an overwhelming positive response in support of using the black and white as the views felt it added to the film product. It was unrealistic that we would get a 100% concordance rate but 90% is still high.

Audience response The audience responded

in a favourable light to the lack of dialogue. This is good because it means we didn’t have to create a longer complex script to makes it clear to any potential audience what the introduction means.

6. What does the lack of dialogue do for the film?

0

2

4

6

Tension Mysterious Effective

CatagoriesDat

a

Audience response

0

10Response

Category

7a. Did you think any of the camera angles were effective?

Series1 9 1

The positive response means that Caitlin did a good job of using camera angles to keep the audience intrigued.

7b. Written responses to Q 7b.

0

2

4

6

Pan/tilt Close up Low angles No answer

Written responses

Da

ta

This is a written response to the previous question which illustrates what audience picked up on and how important it is to use different angles because they do notice.

Audience response 8. Which of the following emotions did you feel at

not knowing the identity of the character?

0

2

4

6

8

10

Annoyed Intrigued Not bothered

Catagories to choose from

Resp

on

se

Series2

Series1

The high response rate for “intrigued” means we have completed the one of the purposes we set out to do- make the audience want to continue watching the film for more information on the characters and the circumstances.

Audience response There wasn’t that many errors notices and screening helped us because it allowed us to make changed before calling it complete.

10b. Did you notice any continuity errors and approximately when in the film?

When he walks into the lift it looks like he just carried on walking

Presses button but when he walks into the lift it is several meters away rather then next to the lift

Bank scene- you can see that it says classroom in the corner

Audience response The majority of the response had no answer- whether from laziness or from no adjustments need which is good as its less work for us. There were some simple changes like the title speed that needed to be looked at anyways so it just highlighted how fast we had to work to finish.

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

Our media product doesn’t really challenge media convention but fits within the set paradigm that are time tested. We have included the following:

Titles of film, production and distribution logo Sound track- underscore Dialogue Introduction of the actionWe followed the media convention of using titles because that is the

most descriptive part of our whole product. The name “Waste Money” informs the audience about the content of our film, so the audience beforehand have some opinions and perceived schemes about what they expect to see. How we made the title interesting was by before hand in the production and directed by name we highlighted all the letters of “Waste Money” in red. The connotations for the colour red are danger and blood; both of what our film contains.

Later on in the editing stage I realised that we were neglecting an important part of our brief- the title sequence because we focused on the opening of the film and did some work on the ‘production/distributed by’ slide. However after researching Saul Bass, a noted graphics designer I found that we were not being very creative, though we were limited by the technology we used (iMovie). Our original idea was to have a cross-hair logo at the begin, like Walt Disney have their logo at the beginning of their films. While we found software to make our logos, they were costly to buy. Our production and distributed slides fit the conventions of real films by being informative and being shown in a way that reflects the context of the film by the use of colour and sound.

Dialogue is one of the ambiguous aspects of film product. Much like the identity of the lead character we wanted to keep the audience guessing what happened and why. The spoken dialogue is brief, but it adds an air of mystery to the whole film. What is exactly has been “done” and why which is the way were going to be moving the film forward.

Our film introduction is the most different to everyone else. It is not overt and immediate but slowly builds up past the 2 minute limitation we have been set. We have visual the ending more comic then what fits the overall genre of action-thriller but still fitting into the overall film. It starts off without being focus on the action and just the underscore and then moves onto the action because we wanted to engage the audience from the beginning. We wanted them to be motivated at finding out what caused the behaviour to occur (the beating) and what would happen next.

From the beginning of this task after our preliminary task I didn't realise that for film we would need transition because I didn't use them originally or plan on using them originally. However they are real important because they enable us to move from one shot to another seamlessly (i.e. when the assassin walk down the corridor- it goes from a front shot to a rear shot using a transition).

Who would be the audience for your media product? Gender: Male Age: 16-30The reason why our audience is more male

centered and may not attract as many female audience members is that the topic is stereotypically seen as male interest. Our film is centered around a male figure who moves the plot and action around and unless there is a love story or lead female the female audience makes up a small percent of the viewers. While we tried to make the film fit the same conventions (see first question) of films that are already in the market i.e. Jason Statham films, with the ‘benevolent’ leading actor with moral. Our hit man is one of these killers to try and get the audience to like him while he is on his crusade instead of despise him for his actions.

The average age of sample fit into the age bracket we set for the film. So the results are relevant to us to look at.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product does not represent social groups in a straight forward way. Out of the two characters seen on the screen, the minor character is then most stereotyped represented.

Hoodies, jeans and trainers is the outfit for teenagers, young adults and unemployed. It shows a lack of class and would be more likely to be a victim of crime. The costume comes into the mise-en-scene, though it was by accident and not on purpose that those clothes were worn-its just was what he was wearing at the time and they fit into the whole idea we had for the film.

The main character is the most difficult to pin point. On one hand its just a man in a suit which can connate different things i.e. a business person. We used the suit to be a representation of the upper class killers, those not controlled by emotions but by money. They kill for anyone as long as the price is right and don’t have a typical representation. We have chosen one the audience would recognize as it is very similar to James Bond.

Our character also represents a set of skills that isn’t found in the general population which is a draw for people

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

Real

Media institution: EuropaCorp and 20th Centaury Fox

Why:

Personally I saw this film as being in the same genre/ direction of Transporter, a Jason Statham film trilogy which appeals to the same demographic audience as our film product. Although EuropaCorp is s French company they do have approximately 1/3 of their film being in English.

20th Centaury Fox is a subsidiary of News Core and is one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world so it would have wider distribution.

Invention

Media institution: FirePic Ltd

Why: This is a up and coming distribution company that wants to invest in films specifically targeted to the younger generation.

This film would be perfect for this company because the film is all about attracting the younger generation to get interested in films. Though this film is heavy on intrigue, quite an adult theme, the whole point of films is to extend the audience mind.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Since our target audience is predominately male, not all because the genre is attractive to both genders, the way we attracted our audience was to uses the same gender. By using males we immediately attract our target audience as they find it easier to relate To. This can be supported by the work of psychologist Bandura. His famous ‘Bobo Doll’ study found that genders respond to same genders.

Another way we targeted our audience was through the costume. By using such a contrast between the two characters on screen- a smart organized professional contrasting with someone wearing a costume that reflects a lower socio-economic status.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Technology used:

YouTube- this is one of the important technologies used because it allowed use to use more data and explore more and more about media

and the films. Without the invention of a platform like YouTube, many wouldn’t be able to explore the film industry because they couldn’t see what is can be achieved.

Software for editing (iMovie)

Garageband- voice over

Video camera

Com

puter

Internet is one of the most important inventions ever! Without internet the whole of the media industry would be relegated to textbooks and wouldn’t be the innovated subject it is. Without internet we would also lose how media can be creative.

Limitation of technologies A limitation of the computer

is the software available to us as it was a specifically a Mac computer.

Another limitation is the fact that different software don’t play all the video formats. iMovie saves as a m4v and Window doesn't accept it so it means we have to spend time uploading videos to YouTube to make sure there is another way of viewing the videos if people look at the videos imbedded in the PowerPoint view it on another brand computer.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From the prelim task I have learnt a lot.

1. I am not suited for work as an actress or any work in front of a camera. I find my voice irritating and look clumsy on screen so there is no point be being ascetically displeasing in the shot.

2. Behind the camera work is much more invigorating for me. There is so much more I can do and play with. In the prelim task I did both the filming and the editing. I find filming fun but not for a long period of time. I am not a perfectionist so its pointless me filming because I will be happy with any shot and not stick to the filming norms i.e. using a tripod to make sure the camera is steady. I find editing more interesting because I have control. Caitlin and Sean’s jobs are done. Now I have to take what they have made and make a polished finished product. A weakness of editing is its so time consuming, you have to go over the rushes time and time again cutting out any flaws, chop and change videos that may have been shot on different days so there are no continuity errors. Since we used a black and white effect that doesn’t affect use greatly but unfortunately one of the best scenes in my opinion did get affected by the ambient light and ruined the whole effect we were going for.

Another thing I learnt from the prelim task to the main task is that filming need patients. Rushing the job doesn’t do anything but damage what you are trying to create. We had approx 2 months to edit and I honestly not happy with the final product as there are still things I think we can do. Unfortunately I also found that constantly going back and changing what I have done has made me more frustrated. Its supposed to be an amateurish/ semi-professional product as we have had no real filming experience

Limitation of my presentation

In my presentation there are some obvious limitations. I haven't utilised technologies as much as I could have. I don’t have any videos of myself answer questions or making any justifications for my choices. I did try to make a voiceover but with difference between different computer system I couldn't upload them easily.

Continuity errors This is one of the continuity errors

that was picked up on by the sample audience. As we couldn’t film in a bank and were lucky enough to have a cash point within college we decided that it would be easier to use this cash point .

This continuity error was one that we didn’t pick up on but it breaks down the flow of the film because the mise-en-scene is corresponding.

As editor I cropped the shot to exclude the “classroom” noticeboard.

MAJOR/minor errors

Here are two examples of continuity errors we had to have. Due to shooting on different days and lack of co-ordination between the group i.e. the dead body was here and the killer wasn’t we don have the victim wearing the same clothes . Its not that much of a problem in the long run because in the second shot of the victim we just need a dead body approximately the same to be there as he’s hidden behind a door.

Sound

From our audience response we found the music was preferred.

This is perfect as we spent a long time looking for the music to make sure fit and we actually had sound.

For our soundtrack we wanted something specific. An underscore to add mystery to our film and built up the anticipation for the audience. From our sample audience feedback we had a 100% approval rate for the sound as the audience felt it was the right music for the scene. We had difficultly finding said piece of music because the copy right free websites did want payment for the songs. We found our music on a website that allowed student to use the sound as long as it wasn’t for commercial reasons without payment.

Best footageDue to continuity errors, one of the best shots we had we had to discard. This shot fits perfectly into what we have in mind for a mystery. However as the dead body was not in the background as we filmed on different days it led to this problems.

This shot is perfect because due to ambiance lighting- lighting which is naturally present without any artificiality. We filmed in the afternoon when the sun was lower so it hid the face perfectly. Unfortunately when we reshot it for the final product we didn’t quite get this effect again which was disappointing but we need to have a film that was logical.

Remarkably this is the clip we as a group was worried about because we could see the errors but the sample audience didn’t pick up on it. We could have kept this shot but as a group we are so close to the project and understood the story better then others so we need to change it for peace of mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rOYYgCiYnE

URL of video

Best footageThis is also one of the best shot we have and this one is included. This shot like the previous one (slide above), allows us to keep the mystery from the audience. This shot required timing as we had to used a lift in college that anyone can use.

URL for video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhFE0nsjpH4

Unexpected angle This is one of the unexpected shots we took to makes sure we had enough footage to make a product out of and is not included in our storyboard. However this is one of the best shot we took overall because the simplicity of it is amazing. The camera was placed on the floor at a certain distance and then the action commenced. This angle really allows the audience to focus on the victim and question why this person was attacked and keep to our theme of not showing the main characters face.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQpau5uMl28&feature=related

URL for the video of this still

Original and still the bestThis clip is an example of what work I did a an editor. In response to the sample audience they found a continuity error which we as a group didn’t; the classroom notice. What I did instead of re-filming was to crop the footage. This was simply to exclude the notice and make sure the ratio was still the same so it didn’t look squashed but we zoomed in to get the detail of the lack of money so it helped instead of hindered.

Bibliography http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/htmfiles/editing.htm

http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=curej

http://www.answers.com/topic/saul-bass 9.03.2011 4.37pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnpJ_KdqZE (link to Saul Bass ‘Man with the Golden Arm’

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-saulbass (picture of saul bass)

http://www.moviewallpaper.net/w/Jason_Statham_in_The_Transporter_Wallpaper_1_1024.html image of Jason Statham

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0845046/ image of son of rambow

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/ image of Halloween the original

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/ image of Stranger then Fiction

http://http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/ image of Kill Bill Volume 1