The genre of my film is horror, and the story type that my creative film project will conform to will be #7: The Quest.
The protagonist goes to search for something or someone. In the end, he/she finds that something or someone and is, or isn't rewarded
My story will concern mysterious disappearances and/or deaths, and the film's main protagonists will take it upon themselves to gather friends and investigate these deaths/disappearances and whatever's causing them (the antagonist(s)). The protagonist will successfully find it and the following events will result in the end of these previously mysterious deaths/disappearances.
The story type outlines that the protagonist may or may not be rewarded. Although the protagonist does not receive a physical award of any kind, the disappearances that were disrupting the equilibrium will come to end, and thus there will be a reward in the re-eqillibrium being attained for the remaining characters.
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Friday, 19 October 2012
Update #6
I have started my creative project animatic on the website GoAnimate. This will enable me to envision the length of each of the shots in my chosen sequence and have it complete in good time. I will use screenshots from the animatic for my printed storyboard.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Storyboard animatic
I used GoAnimate to create this animatic, because it provides a great alternative to hand drawing as I am not very artistic, and I can easily take screenshots of the animatic to use on my storyboard.
Film Studies sequence animated by s0014235 on GoAnimate
Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.
Film studies sequence (Part 2) by s0014235 on GoAnimate
Animated Presentations - Powered by GoAnimate.
Film Studies sequence animated by s0014235 on GoAnimate
Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.
Film studies sequence (Part 2) by s0014235 on GoAnimate
Animated Presentations - Powered by GoAnimate.
Friday, 12 October 2012
Update #5
My group are finishing up post-production for the Maltese Falcon task. We are including a gag reel to give viewers a behind the scenes insight of the filming process. We have made the main footage grayscale to reflect the time of the actual film, which was released in 1941.
Friday, 5 October 2012
Update #4
I am due to make improvements on my aims and context as well as my synopsis. I also intend to begin storyboarding my sequence soon. I have taken a look at the storyboard I produced over the summer break and have decided I should make improvements to my work, as I have changed my synopsis since then so my imagined film has a much stronger storyline.
Feedback from my teacher regarding synopsis:
"In a small peaceful village named Deville where very little occurs..." - remove "where very little occurs..."
"Demetria struggles to adjust to normal life after the deaths of many of her friends, but has gained much more awareness" - "Needs a stronger ending"
"Cause + effect = change - how has she changed?"
Also, I have been put into a group of 5 to work on the preliminary Maltese Falcon task, in which I will practice my filmmaking skills, re-creating the first 6 minutes of the film noir of the same name (John Hutson, 1941). I will take on the role as director.
Feedback from my teacher regarding synopsis:
"In a small peaceful village named Deville where very little occurs..." - remove "where very little occurs..."
"Demetria struggles to adjust to normal life after the deaths of many of her friends, but has gained much more awareness" - "Needs a stronger ending"
"Cause + effect = change - how has she changed?"
Also, I have been put into a group of 5 to work on the preliminary Maltese Falcon task, in which I will practice my filmmaking skills, re-creating the first 6 minutes of the film noir of the same name (John Hutson, 1941). I will take on the role as director.
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Maltese Falcon task
I have been put into a group of 5 to work on the preliminary Maltese
Falcon task, in which I will practice my filmmaking skills that I will need for the short film sequence I am going to produce. I am helping to re-create
the first 6 minutes of the film noir of the same name (John Hutson,
1941). I will take on the role as director and camera operator, whilst the other members of the group take on the roles of the characters seen at the beginning of the film.
The first thing we did after being assigned into groups was arrange who would be portraying each role and who would act as director. After we did this, we looked through the script and each actor/actress practiced their lines with each other. We also discussed which locations we would be shooting in and who had appropriate costumes to bring in.
On the first day we were planning to shoot, we were given little time to do so, and one actor was unavailable to shoot her scenes. Although we tried to shoot the scenes that didn't feature that actor, we experienced other difficulties with getting the desired camera angles right, joined with the college fire alarm going off. We were unable to shoot anything we used in the final video that day.
The next day we filmed was during the final week we were given to work on the film, which generated a lot of potential problems, giving us little time to get the lighting how we wished it to be and little time to do retakes of particular scenes that were not at a fully decent standard. Before we commenced filming on that day, we attached letters that made up "SPADE AND ARCHER" to the window in order to re-create the shot in which the camera pans from the window with this message to the character of Sam Spade sitting at his desk.
The shots featuring the character Effy were not as we hoped they would be as the actress only brought in her costume on the first day of filming, so we had to film her scenes in her regular clothing. The same applied to the actor playing the role of Miles Archer, who too only brought in his costume on the first day of filming.
For those who did bring in their costumes, portraying Sam Spade and Miss Wonderly, there was still continuity errors present. The actress portraying Miss Wonderly brought in a fascinator hat to wear for her role. However, she is not seen to be wearing this hat in some shots after it had fallen off and we were running out of time. The actor playing Sam Spade decided against wearing his costume on the final day of filming as by then, we were placed under a heavy amount of pressure and decided to focus solely on making the dialgoue and the cinematography strong, so he goes from wearing formal clothing to present-day regular clothing durihg the sequence.
There are various other continuity errors to be noted. After the shot in which Sam Spade, who is resting his arms on his desk, says "yes..." whilst he listens to Miss Wonderly and makes eye contact with her, he is seen to be slouching on his chair reading something on a sheet of paper in the very next shot. Also, after the shot in which Miles Archer enters the room, the next shot involves Sam Spade telling him to come in whilst looking at where the character is supposed to be located. However, we can visibly see the actor portraying Archer sitting down right behind Spade in this shot.
There were also problems with lighting in some shots. We can see the light reflecting off the windows in some shots, darkening the remainder of what is located in the frame. We could have perhaps avoided these lighting errors by decided on alternative camera angles or altering the settings on the video camera that we used.
One particular example of a camera angle we used which we didn't think through was the final shot in which Miss Wonderly stands up and takes her leave. However, as the shot opened with her sitting down I chose to use a close up shot, so as she stood up her head was no longer visible in the frame.
If we were to attempt this assignment again, we would have given ourselves more time to shoot all the footage needed and decide at the start whether or not we would be using costumes to avoid continuity errors. In the final shot I would have panned up so that the camera would follow her head as she stood up. I would have also attempted the shot in which the camera pans down from "SPADE AND ARCHER" to Sam Spade, as it is shaky in some parts of the shot.
Mistakes seen:
Poor cinematography
Poor lighting
Continuity error - actor is sat down after shot of him walking in
Continuity error - change of clothing
Continuity error - change of posture
Continuity error - disappearance of head accessory.
The first thing we did after being assigned into groups was arrange who would be portraying each role and who would act as director. After we did this, we looked through the script and each actor/actress practiced their lines with each other. We also discussed which locations we would be shooting in and who had appropriate costumes to bring in.
On the first day we were planning to shoot, we were given little time to do so, and one actor was unavailable to shoot her scenes. Although we tried to shoot the scenes that didn't feature that actor, we experienced other difficulties with getting the desired camera angles right, joined with the college fire alarm going off. We were unable to shoot anything we used in the final video that day.
The next day we filmed was during the final week we were given to work on the film, which generated a lot of potential problems, giving us little time to get the lighting how we wished it to be and little time to do retakes of particular scenes that were not at a fully decent standard. Before we commenced filming on that day, we attached letters that made up "SPADE AND ARCHER" to the window in order to re-create the shot in which the camera pans from the window with this message to the character of Sam Spade sitting at his desk.
The shots featuring the character Effy were not as we hoped they would be as the actress only brought in her costume on the first day of filming, so we had to film her scenes in her regular clothing. The same applied to the actor playing the role of Miles Archer, who too only brought in his costume on the first day of filming.
For those who did bring in their costumes, portraying Sam Spade and Miss Wonderly, there was still continuity errors present. The actress portraying Miss Wonderly brought in a fascinator hat to wear for her role. However, she is not seen to be wearing this hat in some shots after it had fallen off and we were running out of time. The actor playing Sam Spade decided against wearing his costume on the final day of filming as by then, we were placed under a heavy amount of pressure and decided to focus solely on making the dialgoue and the cinematography strong, so he goes from wearing formal clothing to present-day regular clothing durihg the sequence.
There are various other continuity errors to be noted. After the shot in which Sam Spade, who is resting his arms on his desk, says "yes..." whilst he listens to Miss Wonderly and makes eye contact with her, he is seen to be slouching on his chair reading something on a sheet of paper in the very next shot. Also, after the shot in which Miles Archer enters the room, the next shot involves Sam Spade telling him to come in whilst looking at where the character is supposed to be located. However, we can visibly see the actor portraying Archer sitting down right behind Spade in this shot.
There were also problems with lighting in some shots. We can see the light reflecting off the windows in some shots, darkening the remainder of what is located in the frame. We could have perhaps avoided these lighting errors by decided on alternative camera angles or altering the settings on the video camera that we used.
One particular example of a camera angle we used which we didn't think through was the final shot in which Miss Wonderly stands up and takes her leave. However, as the shot opened with her sitting down I chose to use a close up shot, so as she stood up her head was no longer visible in the frame.
If we were to attempt this assignment again, we would have given ourselves more time to shoot all the footage needed and decide at the start whether or not we would be using costumes to avoid continuity errors. In the final shot I would have panned up so that the camera would follow her head as she stood up. I would have also attempted the shot in which the camera pans down from "SPADE AND ARCHER" to Sam Spade, as it is shaky in some parts of the shot.
Mistakes seen:
Poor cinematography
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