On the 12/12/09 we filmed some more footage again, due to the poor nature of the filming we had previously done.It took very long to get set up however this time we knew what we wanted out of each shot, we planned more and discussed our ideas in a better way. About an hour into filming it started to rain, due to continuity we needed to stop filming outside and filmed the required footage inside because it takes ever so long to set up for filming we had to stop because of lighting continuity. We also planned to film on the 13Th Which was a Sunday, on Sundays close to Christmas they hold a fair at St. Johns wood high street, this is where we planned to film therefore due to obvious reasons we couldn't film.

On Sunday 06/12/09 we went to go and film or footage at St. John's wood high street. we found it very hard to set up quickly because it is hard to frame the camera and level the tri-pod easily. I found it very easy to capture my vision of what I believe our clip will look like. Another thing that i found hard was getting everything filmed in time because shots have to be shot many times in order to make sure that you don't have a problem when it comes to editing, due to the nature of the shoot we did not manage to get everything done therefore we must film again. We managed to film on Monday 07/12/09 and Thursday 10/12/09 however we could only film for 1 and a half hours, this is not enough time to get a lot filmed we only managed to film about 10 seconds of use able footage.

Development

Script

Saman: When i was younger all i wanted to do

was get older, now that i am i can do what adults do, and well, i do, i can drink drive vote and have sex, but i don't vote that's not for me. I've realised a couple of things along the way, im good at what i do, but it's how i do it that gets me into trouble, you may think im a bad man, but the thing is, i'm really not.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our opening titles for Crook it shows Saman walking down the street, walking into a shop, browsing the shop a little bit, then attempts to steal some items, however he is chased out by the shop owner and round the corner.

Pre-Production

Location

Above are pictures that I and my group took when we went to go and have a look at our location. We have chosen the area of St Johns wood because it is an upmarket area with many expensive clothes shops, the kind of shops that are more desirable for shoplifting.

Our idea is to have a character, name unknown, to walk down a side ally, come on to the main road, walk into a shop and steal a few items. Once the clothes have been stolen he will be chased by the security guard, eventually the character will loose the guard and stop somewhere to catch his breath. there will also be a voice over explaining the character's life, his background, name, Why he steals and the audience will, hopefully, get to know who this character is what he is about. That's is why we believe that St Johns wood is an appropriate location.

To help me understand the conventions of a British gangster film and what the openings tend to look like, I looked at to help me. I will upload appropriate openings soon

Props List:
Gloves
Clothes to be stolen

Equipment list:
Camera
Tripod
Memory cards
Battery charger

Roles:
Saman - criminal

Cast List:
Saman playing Saman
Saman is a 'hard' lad, with a tough background, he steals because he feels the need to.

Costume:
Grey tracksuit bottoms
dark coloured coat with a hood
white shoes
gloves

Location:
St. John's wood high street and slip roads surrounding
Square 1,St. John's wood high street

Sound:
Music - Chasing Status, Snow Patrol
Voice over - To be created by Saman

26/11/09 - 06/12/09 - Pre-Production

Filming dates:
06/12/09

07/12/09 - 1 1/2 hours

10/12/09 - 1 1/2 hours

12/12/09

12/12/09 - 03/01/10 - Editing

17/03/10 - Film burned to DVD

17/03/10 - 02/04/10 - prepare and present, power point presentation

Research - Saw VI analysis-thriller horror

This is the opening for the feature film 'Saw' the lighting is very dark to create a feeling of a dingy and scary room, this already tell the audience of the type of film they are about to see. The use of jumpy handheld camera helps to create a sence of urgency and panic, this can shock the audience and scare them from the very beggining, the desired affect of the film. All the charcters seem to be hurt and in a state of shock. this shows the audience what the charicters are feeling.

Last week I found out that we must plan what our scene will look like in the form of a story board, to help me do this I looked at www.artofthetitle.com this is a website that has the openings of many films so that you can see what they do or don't have in common, i hope to do a horror film therefore I am looking at similar films to see what they have in common.

When I have created my storyboard I will upload it to blogger.

Idea For My Coursework

I have already thought of an idea for my media coursework however I would like for my coursework to be different from other coursework created by other candidates. In this segment of the coursework we must create the first two minutes of a new feature film.

I seem to always enjoy horror films therefore I would love to create one myself: A static shot of an old country road with one lamp post , cutting from one end of the road to the other end of the road, the audience hear the sound of a car slowly getting louder, the old white car pulls up to the pavement near to the lamp post,cut to a large shot (LS), there is a man sitting in the drivers seat, cut to close -up (CU), the man reaches to the glove box, CU glove box, cut to medium shot (MS) of the man in the car with a pair of binoculars in the man's hands, CU of the mans lap, man puts them on his lap, CU glove box, MS man in car with bottle in hand , CU man drinking brandy, the man then reaches over to the glove box one more time, a loud bang is heard by the audience. The camera cuts to an extra large shot (ELS) of the car and the lamppost, no one can be seen, end scene.

I hope that the scene I have devised will be used because I like the influence horror films have on the minds of the intended audiences. I hope to be able to film the footage when I go back to school so that I can edit it it ASAP

Camera Angels

In media texts such as film, many different camera angels are used to create different effects, for example, if i were to be creating an intense argument i would cut from person to person in a close-up.

Key :

XLS- Extra Large Shot
MCU- Medium Close Up
LS- Large Shot
CU- Close up
MLS- Medium Large Shot
BCU- Basic Close up
MS- Medium Shot
XCU- Extra Close Up

These different shots, angles and movements are extremely important because they are the basic movements that should be used in every media text with moving images, we also use these shot sizes in our own pieces as well.

This is an animatic that I have created

On monday the 12/10/09 I was given my preliminary task as I was not in the lesson last Thursday because I was at an art exhibition for Textiles. It was about continuity and rules of film making: it is only supposed to be 20-30 seconds long, I like the idea of this task because I was able to put the skills I had learnt in theory to practice. It was nice to actually film something in regards to what we have learnt.

I was in a group with my friends Katie and Mungo, they were in the clip and I was behind the camera. I liked this because I was able to see what it was like, usually I am in front of the camera. After we had filmed all the footage required we went back to the classroom and up loaded the videos we had shot onto the computer using 'Final Cut Pro.' then Craig, my teacher, showed us how to select a section of film we wanted and put it into the final 'cut' of our video. I found this difficult because I had continuaty done it before and I had to learn to do so much all at one time however I am sure I will grasp the concept soon. We haven't quite finished yet but when we have finished I will upload the video onto this blog. I haven't yet learnt how to put a video from my computer onto the blog. I have only learnt how to import an 'Embed', to this is a skill I will have to master as well.

On Friday 02/10/2009 we got the idea of how to use a film camera. We got into groups of two or three and filmed some shots, we had to use many different zooms, our camera also had a manual focus mode so we used that aswel. After we filmed out shots we then uploaded them onto the computer using a program called 'Final Cut Pro.' It was fun and I really enjoyed working with others.

On Monday 05/10/2009 we got our brief for the preliminary exercise for the coursework, we are doing video production so we learnt about Continuity and how films are shot so that the video does not look disjointed and broken up. Relating to this we learnt about match-on-action, this is whereby you simply match the shot with the action, For example if you were to film somebody walking into a room, you wouldn't film them walking into the room and then cut to a shot of the person sitting down because the shot does not match the action.

These are examples of poor editing:





Secondly we learnt about different rules when creating a film, we learnt about the 180 degree rule, this is an imaginary line on a set that you do not film on the other side of otherwise the audience would be confused as to where the characters are standing, For example when filming a football match you are only supposed to film on one length of the pitch, if not the audience could become confused as to where each team is supposed to be shooting. In order to understand this fully we created a storyboard and showed the shots that we would like to be taken.

This my story board:


Thirdly we learnt about a shot, reverse shot this is the shots that would be filmed if you were showing a conversion, it is two shots edited together to give a conversational feeling.

Moreover we also learnt about the 30 degree rule this is when you cut to another shot, if the camera has been moved less than 30 degrees it will just look like jumpy editing, so you must always move the camera more than 30 degrees in order to make it clear that it was not a jump cut.

On Friday 02/10/2009 we got the idea of how to use a film camera. We got into groups of two or three and filmed some shots, we had to use many different zooms, our camera also had a manual focus mode so we used that aswel. After we filmed out shots we then uploaded them onto the computer using a program called 'Final Cut Pro.' It was fun and i really enjoyed working with others.