More research for visual essay

A few weeks I begun my research into the world of televsion and film, as the pathway I plan for my second year will be film I felt I needed a better understanding of how this industry works.

So far I have looked at some mainstream directors such as Ridley Scott, Danny Boyle and George A Romero however now I will be looking at people such as Stacey Dooley who has gone onto make a number of documentries since appearing in a one off TV show called Blood, Sweat and T-shirts.

Blood, Sweat and T-shirts focused on 6 young adults who were sent to the Far East in search of how our day to day products are made and the  true price of how they are made.

Once Stacey had completed her 6 weeks away upon her return she then decided to make a series of  documentries highlighting the injustices of the retail industry and what really needs to change.

 Stacey Dooley now makes documentries for BBC Three

Editing & Rationale

Over the course of the last four weeks we have gone through various such as planning, attending semiars, leactures, remaining in constant contact with each other and undertaking the various tasks we were assigned individualy.
Finally afters weeks of planning my group finally managed to shoot our film called "Ticket" and this took place in the Aboretum Park which is just a few minutes walk from NTU city's Waverley building. Before we could begin to film we all headed to the camera & equipment office as we all need to know how to handle the camera equipment in the correct way so none of it got damaged in the process.

Once this had all been sorted out we were then able to take the equipment with us however we did encounter a minor problem, due to illness our actresss decided to pull out of film and as this was short notice our director stepped in and took over.

Also as a result this meant we all took turns in filming scenes and assisting our director (actress for the day) to make sure things ran as smoothly as possible. However it wasnt just actress who couldnt help us out in the end we had to find a replacement actor at short notice as we were told the original one wouldn't be able to film.

In terms of how the shoot went dispite the cold temperature I felt it had gone fairly well, evetryone managed to work well together and we were each on hand to help each other out with any small problems or quiries. However I do feel that one piece of a equipment called the runner (it attaches itself to the tripod) fairly difficult to work with during the course of the day, I felt the reason behind this was because prevously I had only ever used a tripod for my first piece of group work my one shot film.

Despite this shooting our mini film was fine, we managed to complete it just over three hours and then spent the remainder of our afternoon recording the voice over part of the script.
This afternoon during our two hour workshop the group begun overseeing the editing process of our film and tomorrow we will be hoping to put sound to it as well.

Setting the scene change of location

Our new location is now the Arboretum park earlier today I went to the site we will be filming to take some pictures pre filming which will take place on Wednesday 2nd February at half 12.

Here are my photographs:



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film workshop/ Lecture

On Friday afternoon my seminar class took part in an interactive session which enabled us to learn more about the camera and its functions. This workshop was a continuation from last week when we were taught how to change lighting, alter images and use the correct software which would eventually help us to achieve perfection and develop our camera skills further.

In friday's seminar we were taught how to adjust the shutter, how the camera affects the aris and later on in the second part of our session we were then sent in our assigned groups to go outside and film using the new techniques we had noted down earlier on.

My group decided to film in our chosen location the Arboretum park (this is where we will be filming our scenes for ticket) to shoot the local wild life which included ducks and a collection of birds. Each of us to turns with having a go at using the camera, as my assigned role is using camera and lighting I found all of these techniques very useful and fun.

Here are a list of the new skills I have learnt

Location for our short film

As our group are shooting our two minute film called "Ticket" the location of the film will take place at Nottingham train station during the day I decided to go to our location and take a few images so we were able to set the scene.

Camera Techniques and terminologies

Here are some lighting and camera techniques which I have researched for my assigned role as camera & lighting:

Camera Techniques for research

Spin look:

The camera spins around an actor to get a glimpse of what he or she is looking at. The camera may also begin by viewing the object then spin back around to view the character.

Also the spin look is an alternative to the popular technique of “ Cutting away” when a character looks off-screen.

Track through solid:

A film maker can use track through solid to give the appearance of tracking through a solid object.

Jump cut sequence:

A jump cut sequence is a specific type of montage sequence in which jump cuts are used to show similar actions occurring over a short period of time.

Multi-taker:

A multi-taker refers to a single action that is repeated several times, from different angles and differences. The audience sees the same actions occur, usually about two to three times. This adds dramatic impact to the scene.

Cut zoom in:

Cut zoom in is a technique that adds emphasis to another wise static shot. This technique usually has three stages, a very wide shot, a wide shot and finally medium shot.

Dolly:

Dolly is a very natural technique the camera simply moves horizontally through space. The energy of this technique is similar to a personal walking or riding on a moving platform a wheelchair for example. To conceptualise a Dolly, turn your head towards what you are interested in.

This information was taken from the book “Setting up your shots” (Great camera moves every filmmaker should know) by Jeremy Vineyard 

 Lighting terminology/techniques

Obie

Is a small spotlight that was created by cinematographer Lucien Ballard in 1908-1988 for the film The Lodger which was shot in 1944, it was designed to help to conceal actress Merle Oberon facial scars.

Fill light

Is a light placed to the side of the subject to help fill the shadows and balance the key light.

Tungsten

 Tungsten can be a light from an ordinary light bulb which contains a thin coiled tungsten wire that has become incandescent when an electric current has been passed along it. Tungsten colour temperature is around 2800k to 3400k.

Key light:

This type of light focuses on the subject in question and provides the most illumination along with contrast.

Reflective light

Is a light that can be seen after having bounced off a surface.

The information on lighting terms and techniques is from the website www.mediacollege.com

Favourite film directors (chosen pathway)

As second year multimedia requires me to have chosen a particular pathway I have decided to choose Audio- Visual (film) despite having to film our first group's One Shot film before christmas in the freezing cold temperatures brought on by snow, it has not deterred me and seeing the end result made me really want to persue this pathway.

Currently for this term's work I am in a group of girls shooting a two minute film called "Ticket" and the role which I have taken upon is Camera and Lighting as I saw this as an opportunity to gain a new skill and explore fliming more.

Here are some of my favourite directors:

Directors for my research

1.       Danny  Boyle

Films:  Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire, The Beach. 127 Hours, 28 Days Later and Trainspotting.

                This is one of my favourite directors because I love the way he engages with the audience through telling the story. By the end of the film you really feel you have taken the journey with the characters too.

2.       George a Romero

Films:  Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, The Crazies, Night of the Living Dead, Jack’s Wife/ Season of the Witch.

I love the way George Romero really makes the zombies come to life and as a result you sometimes feel that the zombies could be real and despite it being fiction, zombies could easily take over  the earth.

     

3.  Ridley Scott

Films:  Alien, Gladiator, Hannibal and Robin Hood (2010)

I feel that Ridley goes deep into the characters minds and emotions which conveys on screen, his films are always legendary and leaves you with somewhat of an attachment to the characters and what they’ve gone through.