WELCOME MODERATOR

Sophie Bennett 1289 
Claremont Fan Count School 64680

Welcome to my blog!

I am Sophie Bennett, and I have worked with Agatha Parry 1150, Demi Collins, 1290 and Kate Bradford 1208.

I hope you enjoy my blog, which contains my work on the G321, the titles and openings of a fictional thriller film which I have named "The Unhinging".

My preliminary exercise follows immediately underneath and my evaluation questions are above.

PRELIMINARY TASK

Today my group (Demi, Agatha, Kate and I) started our preliminary task. 

• our group first planned and made up a short preliminary film 
• our film was about 2 police officers/ detectives who have found 2 items that we found at the scene of a crime. 
• we had to think of different aspects when filming, such as the use of voiceover, music, editing and camera angles ( e.g. panning)
• to edit we used iMovie, by dragging in the scenes to the part where the software puts together the scenes. When editing we came across a few minor problems, such as editing the scene at just the right time, we also had to crop some of the end bits for each scene. For example, when doing the shot reverse shot we need to make sure that we edited so that there was no background noise, such as doors opening and closing and the camera crew talking over us, so it was important that we didn't have that in our preliminary. 
• we used various shots, such as match on shot, shot reverse shot, and over the shoulder shots
• the positives were that we successfully worked well as a team and came up with an idea quickly 
• the negatives were that we took quiet long to film the whole film as many people where using the room aswell and so we had to wait. We also had to film some of the scenes a few times in order to get the camera angle just right.

screenshot of the making of our preliminary film

Editing our Preliminary Film 

FINAL FILM OPENING

Today my group and I completed our film opening. Click the play button to watch the video

FINAL EDITING

Today my group and I were able to finally finish our editing for our film opening, "The Unhinging".
In todays lesson we were able to decide on the font, which was Century Gothic.
We then used these fonts to put the name of the people who were involved in making the film.
When placing these names on a scene we had to ensure that the text was positioned in a way that the text didn't distract the audience away from the action, but at the same time was easily visible and clear to read.

We also finished the soundtrack that we added onto our film. We found a good melody that we used as a basis of creating a mash up. So, when editing our film we ensured that we changed and altered the original soundtrack to make it our own and to make sure that it fits accordingly to the film opening.

Furthermore, we were also able to add in our distributor company, Warp.

EVALUATION Q1 FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

1) Suspense is a key code in thriller films. To convey this, the camera quickly pans right as soon as the audience sees India running towards the locked gates. The quick pan emphasises India's haste and rush to run away from her kidnapper. The panning shot prevents the audience seeing India's face clearly, therefore emphasising suspense & uncertainty.

2) A good thriller should engage the audience's emotions. By using camerawork we were able to develop a sympathetic relationship with the protagonist. Here, the mid shot of India trying to helplessly open the gates elicits our fear and pity. A brief tilt pan then focuses on India sprinting up the steps, signalling her urgency.

3) To reinforce the suspense in this thriller film we included an over-the-shoulder shot, with the camera being placed behind the kidnapper. This shot of the antagonist restricts the audience from seeing his face, therefore hiding his identity making him seem more mysterious. The camera was hand-held, therefore denoting a certain kind of realism as it makes the audience feel as though they are part of the action. It also denotes an imbalance and unpredictability. The camera then slowly zooms and tilts upwards, following Jacks movements. A quadrant is evident towards the end of this scene, with Jack taking up two quarters of the screen, whereas India taking up only one quarters. Thus, emphasising Jacks authority, power and dominance. The lighting in this scene is quite dark, therefore creating a sense of precariousness.

4) The mid shot of India allows the audience to see her fear, anxiety and distress as she calls the police. Again, the camera is hand-held to convey a sense of disturbance and brutality. The slight unsteadiness in the camera also denotes India's insecurity and vulnerability. As the camera zooms out, the antagonist comes into the scene, who then raises up a gun in line with India's head. This greatly suggests that India is in grave danger and her life is in jeopardy. Thus, creating suspense and tension for the audience.

5) A point-of-view shot of Jack is used, allowing the audience to be involved in the action. It also gives the perspective of Jack, reinforcing that the protagonist is being watched.

6) A wide shot is used here, allowing the audience to clearly establish the scene and to see India quickly running away from her kidnapper. The audience is unable to see India's face, therefore further building up the suspense and mysteriousness.

7) Here, the camera is directly above the protagonist, who is lying on the ground, still. The camera slowly zooms into India's face to show her cold, pale and lifeless face. The use of a hand-held camera creates a slight sense of dubiousness but also sorrow.

EXAMINAR UPDATE OF TITLES

For the order of credits in a film opening it is determined by guild rules. These are SAG, the DGA, WGA and other unions.

The order in which credits are billed generally follows their importance to the film, just not linearly. First is usually the motion picture company, followed by the producer, then the "a film by" credit. Then finally we see the Title followed by the cast. From there we reverse gears on the whole "order of importance" guideline and work backwards to the director.

1) The production Company presents - in our case "RAZZLE RAINBOWS PRODUCTION" presents
2) A...production -  PARRY PRODUCTION
3) A... film - BENNETT FILM
4) Title - THE UNHINGING
5) Lead Cast

Therefore, the list of importance is flipped and work backwards to the most important role of the Director.

6. Supporting Cast
7. Casting Director
8. Music Composer
9. Costume Designer
10. Associate Producer
11. Editor
12. Production Designer
13. Director of Photography
14. Executive Producer
15. Producer
16. Writer
17. Director

As a group, we decided that we would name ever person for each role listed above as we wanted our film opening to look professional and efficient making use of the correct list of credits. 

STORYBOARD

Below are pictures of the storyboards that my group and I drew out as part of our planning process.

EDITING FILM OPENING

I have made an infographic document, explaining what I did on Friday. To create this infographic I used the website infogr.am. 

Look below to view more infographic document that I have created. Or click HERE to view it online. 

FINAL FILMING SCENE

Today I have made an Emaze powerpoint, including pictures and an explanation of what my group and I did when filming.

Click HERE to view my Emaze powerpoint. 

BASEMENT SCENE

Yesterday, my group and I filmed at Agatha's house, in her basement to film the final scenes for our film opening. We were hoping to finish all of our filming, however after getting there, putting on the fake blood and bruises, tying Demi to a chair and discussing which scenes we needed to do, we didn't have much time left to film. Having said this, we did get some filming done and so we have progressed in our film opening.

Below is another collage I have made, showing what we got up to. I used the website FotorCollage to make this collage.

FOREST SCENE

Today my group and I did some further filming for our film, The Unhinging. We filmed in the forest at our school, Claremont Fan Court. Although we have already filmed in the forest before, we had a few more scenes to film. We are now very close to finishing our filming for our film opening and then we will be able to focus on the editing. 

Today, we used a variety of different shots and angles, such as; extreme close up shots, point of view shots, panning shots, low angle shots and close up shots. 

Below is a collage that I have put together, showing what we did today and what sort of shots we have been able to film. I created this collage by using a website called FotorCollage. 

iSTOP MOTION

Today I have made a NewHive document, explaining what I have done in todays lesson. Look below to view more NewHive

NEWS REPORTER SCENE

Yesterday my group and I filmed the news reporter scene outside the school gates. Kate and I played the news reporters, whilst Demi was filming and Agatha was showing us the cue cards. We tried to film this scene last week, however we found that it was very difficult to film as it was very windy, lots of cars kept driving past us during filming and also young school children were making a lot of background noise and we felt that this spoilt the filming as the scene is meant to be serious and all these ambient sounds spoilt the scene. Luckily, yesterday was much quieter and we were therefore able to quickly film the scene. I decided that we should film the scene here as the road is nice and also has a row of houses. I thought that we could pretend that India lived in one of these houses and could therefore film outside the house, but not directly in front of the house. 

OPERATOR FILMING SCENE

On friday lesson my group and I filmed the operator scene. I decided that we should go down to the ICT department at school as it seemed appropriate for the scene. This was because there were desks, computers, sockets and many cables running throughout the room - making it the ideal place to film as it is identifiable to the audience what this scene is meant to portray. To make it look more realistic I thought that it would be a good idea if I was in the background, on my laptop at a desk, wearing headphones - pretending to do police work.

Agatha was the main character in this scene. She was playing a police phone operator who receives a call from India. She then asks where her location is and tries to calm India down as she is very scared. When we filmed this scene Agatha was sitting down on a chair with a laptop in front of her, which meant that she was quickly able to track India. She also wore a headset with a microphone attached to it, allowing her to talk and listen to India clearly.

UPDATE OF FACEBOOK

I am in charge of my groups Facebook page for our film opening. By having our own Facebook page we are able to promote, distribute and gain valuable feedback about the film. Click HERE to visit our page.

DISTRIBUTION POSTER

I have created an online presentation to show what I have done this lesson. Click HERE to view my presentation (created my Emaze).

TRELLO

I have recently updated my trello list. Below is a screenshot of my new trello list. Using trello has helped me to keep onto of filming and updating my class blogs and has therefore proved to be very useful.

POSTER MAKING

Yesterday my group and I made a start on making posters for our film. We used Photoshop to alter and perfect the poster to our liking. We plan to make different kind of posters and upload them onto our pages on Twitter and Facebook, which would therefore keep people interested in the film. 

Below is a collage that I have quickly put together to show you what progress we made yesterday. 

FILMING #2

Yesterday my group ( Demi, Kate and Agatha) and I did some more filming for our film opening, The Unhinging. We all met at Agatha's house where we were going to film in her basement, which is where India is held hostage.

Below are two collages that I have put together to show you what we did.

FILMING

For the last two lessons, my group and I took the opportunity to do some more filming for our film opening.
We filmed in the forest/woods at Claremont School and filmed the scenes where India is running away from Jack, the kidnapper. Although we still have a little more filming to do in the forest we were able to get a lot of filming done.

The collages below are something I have made (by foto collage) just to give a glimpse of what we tried to do and what we filmed.

 As you can see from the pictures above, my group and I tried to take different shots and angles for each scene we filmed, such as point-of-view shot, over-the-shoulder shot and low angle shots.

The collage below are pictures that we took in order to make a poster from. We wanted India to look innocent and vulnerable in the poster and so we came up with the pictures below.

FUTURE LEARN

Today in class I was made aware of a website called futurelearn.com. The website allows anybody to take up any of the available courses they wish and the courses last 6 weeks. Today I signed up to the "creative arts and media" course and then clicked on "explore filmmaking: from script to screen". By signing up to this course I hope to that I am able to deepen my understanding of the filmmaking process.

Click HERE to go to the online page shown below in the picture.





















Each day the NFTS (National Film and Television School) releases a new task to complete. Look at the picture below to see my progress so far.

The boxes that are coloured blue are the tasks that I have completed. The boxes in pink are the ones that I have clicked on but haven't yet completed. The boxes with no colour are the links that I have not yet clicked on.












Each post/ task contains either a short video to watch or a picture to look at. The videos will normally be of clips from recent short films, or an interview of one of the filmmakers.
After doing this I then go on to read the writing below. Sometimes they will ask me to leave a comment about the video. So far I have posted 2 comments for different posts and I will write more comments as I get further into the course. Not only am I am able to leave comments but I'm also able to read other peoples comments and can even "like", reply or follow them. This will enable me to learn from others aswell, therefore further enhancing my understanding on filmmaking.

LOCATION RECCE 2

Today Demi, Kate and I went out on another location recce in the forest, at Claremont. We revisited the area from our first location recce to establish which scenes we would film for each location in the forest. By doing this we are able to be more organised because when we do film the scene in the forest we shall know where to go and what to film, therefore saving us time. Whilst on our location recce we found an abandoned cabin. When we were exploring the cabin we thought that we could maybe add this into our film opening quickly as we think it would be a good place to film.
The two pictures on the far left and right are pictures of the cabin and Demi ( who plays India in the film). The two pictures in the middle are pictures of Demi's face and leg - showing the fake bruising, cuts and blood.

FILMING THE UNHINGING

Today, my group (Demi, Agatha Kate and I) started filming for our movie, The Unhinging. The scene that we were filming was the first flashback scene when India gets kidnapped outside a gym. To film this scene we went to Nuffield Health Centre. Below is a collage I have made, showing behind the scenes of us filming. I made this collage with the free online tool "fotor photo collage". 

CONSTRUCTION: SOCIAL MEDIA SITE

PLANNING: SHOTS

In todays lesson my group and I were discussing different ways in which we could take a shot of Jack and India. We decided to have the camera filming into a mirror which reflects onto Jack, therefore providing a more unique shot. To prepare ourselves for this scene we took a mirror and discussed different angles; such as were the mirror will be and what angle to the camera will be filming into the mirror. Whilst we were discussing the ideas we had to make sure that the camera was not going to be reflected by the mirror, making the camera visible to the audience. By preparing ourselves for this scene now we shall hopefully save ourselves time when it comes to the actual filming as we have already rehearsed what is going to happen.

In the picture below you can see our group deciding on different angles with the mirror. 

PRACTICING MAKE UP

In todays lesson my group and I practiced making bruises on Demi, who is going to play the character of India. We used a range of different colours, such as blue, purple, green and brown to give a good mixture of colours, making it therefore more believable of the recent bruising that India has suffered from. Below are some pictures of us practicing putting on the make up on Demi to see how it would look at how effective it would be.

REVIEW ON PAST PAPER ANALYSIS

Below are some improvements that i could make for my past paper essay that i got given back today. By taking into account these improvement i will hopefully be able to achieve a higher grade for the next essay i write.

Review of Disability Essay

- I should construct an opening of 2-3 sentences that are an overview of my framework. In this case, disability is shown in the representation of Ben who has Down's Syndrome and who is sheltered by his parents and is reluctantly protected by his brother.
- Specifically refer to Ben's disability, Down's Syndrome
- Refer to the term "editing"
- Give more detail about evolution scene as he talks about genetic failures - like Ben's disability
- Analyse what the voiceover reveals