Blog reflection 3

1. After carefully reading your peer review what changes or additions could you make to improve your film? (Discuss sound, titles, story and genre specific elements)
A change i could make that would make the story of my film more clear is adding some sub titles to explain the movie and make it more clear to the watcher. I could use images that are edited in photo shop to help explain the story more clearly. I should use more elements that create a drama to help as well.

2. Make a list of sound effects that you will need for your film.
-footsteps for the beginning
- a song for the background
- maybe a few different sound effects to create the dramatic effect
- sad music at start and happy music at end

3. Do you feel that your film tells a story clearly or that a strong message is conveyed? If not how can you make this more effective?
I don't feel as though my film tells the story clearly as Tamika on my peer editing sheet said i need to make the story more clear. I could do this by putting sub titles in so people would be able to read and understand the story.

4. What is the story?
The story is about a girl who lives her life backwards, ever since she was born she has lived backwards. Everything she does is backwards, one day she decides to make a change in her life and finally go forward.

5. Do you clearly introduce the genre and the characters at the start of the film?
Yes, the genre and characters are portrayed clearly at the start of the film.

6. What is the climax or how did you achieve a climax in the story?
The climax is when she decides to change her whole way of living life and start to live a different way. This is wear she types something on the computer and then it fades into her being happy in the film and going forward.

7. How is the climax or major event resolved?
It is resolved in the way she finally realise's that she can change her own life and she doesn't have to wait for some one to do it for her.

8. Have you included credits in your film?
No i have no included credits in my film as i am not actually at the end yet, when i finish my film, there will be credit to the director, Grace and the actor Tamika.

Blog reflection 2

The film stills are unable to be put in this post.
Genre Specific elements:
Genre= Drama
The use of dramatic specific elements are used in the film to make it seem more dramatic. Use of special effects like slow motion and different transitions to make all the footage run smoothly to make a film all add up to make the film the genre it is. The choice of titles are something to do with being found, and breaking bad habits and changing the way you live your life. The title i ended up choosing was "Found". The color scheme i went with in the beginning was black and white and then when she changes it goes to color to represent the massive choice she has just made to turn her life around. I need to finish the short film and adjust a few of the transitions to make sure it runs a smooth as possible.

Blog refelction 1

Have you completed your props and costume list?
We used the school environment as our props and the costuming for Tamika was just her school sports uniform as it is about her living backwards at school.

Have you completed the film breakdown sheet for your first scene?
Yes we did complete it, we completed it as a group on one sheet of paper.

Have you made a plan with your group for the shooting of your film?
We didnt really have a plan for the idea we ended up doing. As i was on holiday when they were planning the film, i dont know if they had a particular film in mind before i came.

Describe any skills, techniques or tricks you have discovered during the project?
We tried to use a skateboard to make the filming a bit smoother but it didn't work very well. So we just ended up having to use our own hands to film it because the skateboard made it even more bumpy.

Describe and problems or difficulties you encountered during the filming of your project?

The main problem my group has had is the decision as to what our film is actually going to be about. At first we decided to use Tamika's idea. This was then simplified to make it easier to shoot. After attempting to film the new simplified version of the film and playing around in i-video with the footage we decided to change the plot entirely. While this will make the shooting of our film much easier we are running out of time and need to ensure we complete all filming before the end of term!


Are you satisfied with your film process so far? How could you improve this?

With the small amount of footage that we have so far I am quite satisfied with it. While a lot of the footage will be need to cut and edited a lot I think we are on the right track, finally.


Have you managed your time effectively?

I think we have managed our time quite effectively despite the fact we've had to change our plans several times we do actually have quite a large amount of footage, though a lot of it is no loner relevant towards our project.


Are there things you would like to change?

We've changed our plans to many times now, our film is now just of Tamika doing random things and we had to make a film out of it, that there should be nothing else to change!


If you could start again what would you do differently?

If I were to start again I would ensure that we all totally agreed on our storyline and had all the planning done so we wouldn't have to keep changing ideas half way through. Make our filming alot more organised and made sure we had enough footage.

Have you uploaded your footage to an appropriate computer for editing?
Yes i have loaded up all the footage to a computer so i can edit it.

Alien

Genre; Science Fiction
Mise en scene/ Sound/Cinematography: The high ceilings and the mechanical props help made the film effective as a science fiction film. It looked like the film was filmed in a factory or some sort of engineering place or some sort of army submarine, in the bottom where every thing is operated, where all the mechanical things could of been located. The colours of the props were dark, with the darkness of the props and the lighting joined together, there were parts of the setting you couldn't see. The lighting helped in the way of making it dark and light in different places, when it was light you could see the mechanical bits and pieces around him, and how the light is lurking through the ceiling, just that bit murky. When it turned dark it was hard to see parts of the setting. The whole setting helps with the movie genre, Science Fiction.

The costume of the man who was looking for his cat, was very simple. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and an old jumper/cardigan and a baseball cap. He looked very simply dressed, someone who drove a bus or something. The way he was dressed, made him look vulnerable, not very strong. The way he moved slowly along the set built up the suspense of the people watching not knowing whats going to happen and when. When he was walking through, at one point you could hear a heartbeat over everything, and the creaking while he was walking made it sound like no one had been there for years. The clanging of chains, and his footsteps, the water trickling down from about and the calls out to his cat jonesy are the few things that you hear during the movie, not a lot of dialogue is used, except for when the man was calling out to his cat. As soon as he finds the cat, there is another sound. The sound of the alien growling, and then the man turns round and the alien is right there in front of his face, at this point you can hear the alien making a noise, a hissing sort of noise, then the screams as the alien attacks him. The sounds all added to the suspense of the movie and not knowing where the alien was going to get him. At one point the man looks up and takes his cap of so water can trickle down his face, at this point, the suspense was building as people might have been expecting the alien to come down and attack him right then and there, but the movie continued on into another part, this helped build the suspense.

The camera movement in the film made it a lot more exciting, the slow and steady movement created the suspense as the man was moving through calling out to his cat, jonesy. The camera cut into close ups of the man, to create more suspense. During the film the camera followed over his shoulder, it gave the impression that you were following him down the halls. The camera position was in different positions, when he was picking up the alien skin that he found on the floor, it came in from the ants view and back up into a medium close up and sometimes a close up.

Cinematography

Camera movements: The camera movements were slow in some points and fast in other shots. The speed was slow and steady to create suspense. When one of the beans were flicked against the drums and went back and forth a few times, it was fast.
Speed: The speed of the camera was slow and steady but when the girl was dancing fast the camera was still moving slow and steady.
Focus: At one point in the movie there was a close up of the girl and the background was all blury/fuzzy.
Perspective: The camera position came in from a birds eye view and then came down.
Camera Position- medium shots- these shots were to show the setting. Close ups and the extreme close ups- were to display or show suspense.

House of flying daggers;

Mise en scene; Foreign action genre

Style of acting; More about physical acting rather than dialogue. Clear use of body language to tell the story. Often with sub titles or voice overs.


Props/Settings; The use of clothing to symbolise self, the use of drums as a metaphor for the heart beat..the way she sees because she's blind. Drums could also symbolise her being trapped and enemies surrounding her. Different drums symbolising their nationality. The swords symbolise death, controll, protection, the sound of the sword symbolise confusion and disorientation of the character. Symbols of Chinese culture in te use of text and motifs. The beans were a symbol of of a challenge and control and envy.



Lighting; Soft, cool lightin, exaggerated their movements with its simplicity. The background was dull but the characters clothing was bright, symbolising her inner strength.

Cinematography; Camera movements

Definitions;

Cinematography; the art or technique of motion-picture photography.


Mise en scene; the process of setting a stage, with regard to placement of actors, scenery or properties.