Today we watched the Mocumntary by Spike Jonaz called Torrance Rises. Spike had created the video 'praise you' by Fat Boy Slim and this was a mocumentary looking at the aftermath of this video and the 'next step' as it were. Although this was a mocumntarty and we are doing a featurette, it was very useful to see the content they included. This made me think about our feturette and what we should include.
I browsed the internet in search of inspiration for our featurette, looking at interviews and live shot gigs.
I found this T4 music special with Mariah Carey. I like in this feature they have changed locations, and done many different interviews so you can see different sides of her. I thought the ending rounded the feature off nicely as after the show he catches up with her to ask how the show went. I would like to include this in our featurette.
Click on this link to see another documentary that has inspired me.
I really like the switch between performance and interview in this short programme. Also i think the lack of presenter works in their favour. The show seems toput the band in question in the spotlight more and you feel like you are watching something completely about them.
Although we loved the idea for escape to sea, due to the inconvenience of traveling to Brighton we came up with another idea.
Patrick's housemate Ricky Poole has started to play gigs in which he raps. Recently he has joined forces with the band Tamakai. It is still to be arranged when their next gig is but as they both are situated around Bath and Bristol this is much more convenient.
We have been in contact with them asking where they think they might play next and there is a strong possibility that they are going to be playing at the Thunderbolt on the 14th April. This would be a great storyline as this would be the first round of 'Surface Unsigned' in which there would be many rounds, creating a possibility for an extended story. Lets hope they get through!
Today Patrick and I made a powerpoint for our pitch later on in the day at paintworks. We included all what was discussed and decided on from our last meeting.
I really enjoyed the day at 'Paintworks' in Bristol. We were taken on a tour around the building , and we could see where we would possibly be working in the third year ! also we were told Noel Edmonds was near by filming 'deal or no deal' so that was very exciting.......
We were last to pitch , so i was a bit nervous after seeing all the other presentations. It was really interesting listening to all the other pitches as we hadn't actually fully heard each of our course mates' ideas! There was a really diverse mixture of genres for example some were making short films, spoofs, and documentaries.
Once we got up in front of everyone, I actually really enjoyed pitching, and I think all of our group did really well. It was really useful having Nic Jeune ,We received good, useful feedback form him which helped to indicate which parts of our featurette were too complicated/ didn't work etc.
After we had finished our presentations he said that he thought they were well thought out and he was impressed by our professionalism. Hopefully this indicated that we would act well in work after university if we are pitching to a company.
We were put in groups. My team was Rachel Sowden, Keiran Jones and Tom Charnley. We were given a brief script called 'Oh My God'. We were asked to shoot around 15 shots for this short film. We had been asked to film right to left.
We also had been taught about the 180º rule, in which you have to stay on the same side of the invisible 180º line otherwise it will confused the viewer once the shots are put on screen because the left to right/right to left rule wont apply. For example if a train is shot on both side of the 180º line the train will look as it has changed directions if the shots keep changing.
The basic outline for the film was : A girl gets an important phone call in which she immediately sets off to try and help. The film ends with a reaction shot after she has opened the door of our classroom.
We were shown this video by Robert Rodriguez, which explains in 10 minutes how to make a good low budget film. This was useful for this project and also will come in useful for our future.
Whilst making our mini film, we used a tripod which kept the camera steady and at the correct angle, this gave it a professional feel. I was the 'actress' in this film , and i don't think i looked particularly professional. We managed to get lots of different shots from different angles, obviously using the correct health and safety procedures. When tom was filming me running toward him , keiran held his back to prevent him failing over.
Tom lived in student accommodation near by, so we took this opportunity to use the copious amount of stairs to get some interesting shots. Whist filming a few times we got confused about right to left, and had to think through what it would look like once we were watching it back. We also took into account how professional films used close ups, and used closeups for such moments as the phone ringing, we filmed a close up of the phone, and we also did empty screens, where you run into shot. Other techniques we used were over the shoulder, panning, and high angle shots.
When we have logged and captured our film and edited it together I will put the film up on this blog.
So far, as I haven't seen the finished product yet, I feel our filing went well and we worked well as a group, I feel that our shots looked steady and professional , and we used a good variety.
We were given the short script for 'the wrong day' We were then asked to write a shot list as if we were actually going to film this. This shows us which order we should shoot the film. For example if throughout the film it is scripted that the same location is used on different occasions, it is best to film all those scenes together, this is much more logical than going back and forward in the order of the film.
We used Celtex to storyboard 'the wrong day'. We wrote the shots, included a birds eye view sketch of the shot, including camera angles etc. We then took quick photos to illustrate what we want the camera to actually see.
This would be really useful when filming as it would minimise the amount of instructions you would have to shell out, making the filming quicker.
Making a cup of tea
After story boarding for this short film, I made an instructional storyboard for making a cup of tea. I think I learnt alot by breaking down each scene and thinking where the camera should be etc, it helped me to really think about each of my shots in detail and how they should be laid out. This will help me later on when we make our own film.
'Bullitt'
We watched a scene from the film 'BULLITT'. It was the car scene in which Bullitt ( Steve McQueen) was in a car chase with two baddies. In our groups we were asked to take a screen grab of each new camera angle/shot, and then write the camera shots i.e Close up/ Wide shot, and then to give a brief description of what happened in the shot.
This really helped to break a film scene down, and made me notice certain things alot more, I saw how often shots changed, as when you are watching a film as you are involved you dont seem to notice. Also it helped me take into account how nothing is a 'mistake' and all the shots are positioned that way for a reason, and there is always mise en scene and cinematography behind each of the shots. For example there was a low angle close up on the face of the baddie, the baddie was wearing black signifying evil, and the low angle creates power and fear toward the baddie, on the other hand Bullitt, (the good guy) the camera is angled at eye level making it easier for the audience to relate to him, you can also see his whole face, rather than the shadowed baddie, this makes the audience feel as if they know him more.
TEAM TOPCAT PRESENT: Patrick Rachel Myself (moi)(Chloe)
In this first group meeting , we went deeper into what we wanted to achieve from this featurette. We want to follow more of a story. For example leading up to a gig.
We have chosen to use Patrick's friends for the band. They are called 'Escape to sea'. They are from Brighton.
We have decided that we want to include presenters to help along the featurette, they will be informal though and interview the band.
We would like to include shots of brighton in the 5-7 minuets, giving the effect of a road trip.Also a montage/stop frame animation would be used, with maybe one of their tracks on top.
We are meeting up on Monday to finalise our ideas and make a pitch for tuesday, where we will pitch our idea to 'paintworks'.
I decided to take some photos of a bowling alley near me: Charington Bowl. I found the location although bright and fun, also had a sense of tackiness and dispiritedness.
I don't think these photos are very professional, I think I could have shot with better angles and had more of a focal point in some of the photos, but some I also added for comic value, or to show the particular atmosphere.
In the first photo, I like how the shoes in front are in focus and the others in the background are slightly blurred. From seeing this photo you immediately know it is about bowling, even without seeing any of the alleys or bowling balls, because the shoes are so distinctively specific to bowling.
In the Second photo I like how the bowling pins are right in the centre of the frame, drawing us to the main aspect of the game. I think the photo would have looked better if I had photographed the bowler was more to the left, but I do think the photo is more interesting with him in it.
I like how in photo three there is a distinct contrast between the sparse floor and lanes, to the busy seating area. I like the use of lines in this photo,but if I were to do this photo again, I would like to make the bar on the ceiling more central , making both sides of the photo equal sizes.
The sixth photo I took was purely for comic value,he wasn't the most suave man I had seen,in fact he seemed quite awkward and clumsy and his t-shirt stating "read this whilst I check out your tits" just added to this comic image of a character.
In photos eight and nine I took a picture of the small arcade, there was only a few people in here, yet all lights were blazing and there was loud gaming music blasting from all the machines simultaneously. I love the array of clashing colours in these images.
The atmosphere in photos ten and eleven was very lonely and bleak. These were areas which seemed as though they should be filled with conversing families and friends, but instead they were sparse and abandoned.
