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During this single period, having developed our storyline. We also started planning some camera angles and sounds that we could use.
At the start of the scene, we plan on having a medium range side profile shot of the man (Jackson) sitting at the bar. This shot will also be a rising shot starting from the bottom of the table to Jackson's face. The reason for this is, that the bottom of the table is dark and brightens as the camera moves up utilizing the gradually increasing amounts of light, this acts like a fade in transition. I think that this shot is effective because not only does it show Jackson's profile and surroundings but does so in an interesting manner.
Another unique type of shot that we plan to use are "Point of View Shots", usually from Jackson. This allows the audience to watch the scene through his eyes and will also be compatible with the voice over commentary of Jackson's thoughts. I think that this is one of the more effective shots because it integrates so well into our film noir atmosphere.
Lastly, we will be using the manual focus function on the camera so as to focus specifically either on close objects or far objects. This will allow interesting transitions between two separate parts of the stories to be depicted in a single shot. What we plan to do is have Natalia (the femme fatal character) close up to the camera but to the side with Jackson in the back ground. By shifting in out of focus, in one shot, the camera can focus on the goings on of both Natalia and Jackson.
As for sounds, we plan to utilize a vast range of both digetic and non-digetic sounds. During the bar scenes we will include soft music, laughing, girls squealing, footsteps the clink of cups and ice in drinks. All these will be non-digetic sounds and will help facilitate in creating the bar atmosphere. After filming we had planed to voice over all the dialog, however, we vetoed that idea because not only will it be difficult to mouth sync but also would be very time consuming.
Overall, today was yet a another productive lesson in which we worked efficiently and got a lot done. One of the skills I exercised today was "open mindedness" and "caring" of the IB Learner profile, in which I paid attention and gave feedback to the suggestions of other. We also "reflected" critically after every step, considering how a particular piece of dialog, cut or type of shot contributed to our storyline. Our group co-operated very well together and all contributed ideas to improve our film and have thus made good progress.
This entire period was devoted to creating the story for our film noir movie. Ashley had come up with very interesting storyline and we spent most of our time developing it, coming up with movements to accompany the dialog and the location and the time which the scene takes place.
The story starts off with a man (who's name is undecided), walking down a deserted street. We intend on shooting this at night which will emphasize his isolation and loneliness as well as reflect his character as being a depressed person. Our main objective of this location and time is to effectively generate the atmosphere of dankness and sensation of being alone, so often expressed in film noir.
The man then walks into a bar and drinks excessively which portrays his depression. "Drowning his sorrows." As he decides to leave, a waitress places another drink on the table. Confused, he tells her that he didn't order it but she says its on the house. On drinking it, he notices a note at the bottom of his drink which tells him to meet the waitress outside. He ignores it and turns to walk out of the door, but the waitress, Natalia,(who has now changed into "attractive" clothing) is blocking him with one of her legs across the doorway. This is the first instance of the "seductive", femme fatal character. The man is aroused slightly, but still uninterested.
Using phrases like:
Man: Who are you?"
Nat: "Whoever you want me to be."
and
Nat: "Aren't you the impatient one."
It illustrates the seductive and playful character of Natalie. However, despite this the man is not interested. Getting desperate, Natalia cuts to the chase and claims that she knows about his father's death. The man is now engaged. He starts questioning her and she tells him that the murderer that killed his father did the same hers. The scene ends with them agreeing to avenge their fathers.
Throughout our scene, the themes expressed are "depression" (demonstrated through the mans indulgence in alcohol and the darkness of night), "seduction" (personified as Natalia) and "evil" (as Natalia leads the man off his path onto the path of darkness.) We also utilize the imagery commonly used in film noir such as dark streets, possibly smoke, neon lights and alcohol.
For our location, we plan on using a Cafe in Discovery Bay. The advantage of this location is that there is a lot of "red" there, the seats and table cloth and umbrella are all different shades of red. What we hope to achieve is by having so much red is to express both the seductive mood as well as the "heat" of the atmosphere. In the story, as the character starts getting intrigued with what Natalia is saying we hope to use the redness of their surrounds to express the intensity and heat of what their talking about and what they plan on doing.
Throughout our story, there will be minimum movement with the occasional short distanced walks and touching when Natalia is playing with the man. Because of this, we will be using mostly close angle shots; mainly POV and behind the shoulder shots. With the subject being so close to each other, the things that we have to pay close attention to is the 180 degree rule as well as the rule of thirds.
One special thing suggested by Louise was that we could have a running commentary of the man as he goes through the various events of the scene. The commentary will indicate his progressive thoughts which may not be reflected in what the man says. In other words, through the commentary, the audience will know exactly what the man is thinking, what he is feeling and how he disguises and suppresses them when he speaks to Natalia. This demonstrates his internal conflict which pays homage to the film noir atmosphere.
Overall I think that this was a very productive lesson. We all weighed in to help develop the story as well as the characters. Ashley had come up with a very compelling and intriguing storyline. Personally, I think that I could contribute even more and share my ideas, being more of a "risk taker" and being "open minded to the suggestions of other's. Using all the "knowledge" we learned in class, we applied it best we could to our project and from what we have so far, I think that we have made amazing progress and are ready to create our camera/shot log for next period.
In today's lesson we were introduced to our first assessment; Film Noir. I had heard about it before and acted in my friend's film noir project last semester, but as I found out today, it is so much more than simply just a depressing movie with a mood of pessimism.
From learning a brief history of Film Noir from when it started in the 1920's, I some typical features of film noir movies. This would definitely be useful when creating my own. Film noir, which means a "black film" in French, is usually of a dark and depressing content; thus it's title. Starting off being based on detective stories, it also adapted some crime and spy influences. Film noir explores the theme of "moral ambiguity", usually dealing with obscure good and bad characters. This genre of film is also one of the few ones that do not always have a happy ending.
In a classic film noir movie, there is usually has three main characters, the protagonist, the antagonist and the "good influence." The protagonist is often of a depressing background, not exactly the James Bond type of character. He or she is also usually a loner or an outcast who goes about his own business. A unique feature of film noir movies is that it accounts for the protagonist's internal journey more than his physical story. The protagonist is sometimes also mentally unstable, which allows film noir movies to document the character's internal and person conflicts. The antagonist, usually a woman, is the "evil" figure who is leading the protagonist astray. The advantage of using a woman is that if the protagonist is a male, she would manipulate them through seduction. Lastly, the "good influence" character, acts like the protagonist's conscious who points him in the right direction. This character is somewhat like the opposite of the antagonist. These characters, with their sinister and dark motives all contribute to the film noir atmosphere.
Some symbolism to keep in mind would be of dark alleys, 24 hour cafés, dripping water, alcohol, flickering neon signs, smoke and cigarettes. This imagery helps conjure up the sense of darkness and depression which is expressed in film noir and consequently allows the story to flow more easily. These sorts of imagery will be very useful making our film noir movie and if applied appropriately can be very effective in setting the desired atmosphere. We saw how this imagery was executed in two movies "Heat" and "Infernal Affairs". Especially in "Heat" I saw how the dark and smoky atmosphere plays in creating a dark and depressing atmosphere. I also saw the importance of dialog in film noir films which is something to keep in mind when writing the script. Each line has to be witty to demonstrate the character's usually clever demeanor.
At the end of the lesson we joined with Ashley, Louise and Xiang Yi to do our film noir project. We had assigned the roles writer to Ashely and Xiang Yi, Camera person to Louise, sound editor to Xiang Yi and the editor to myself. I am quite apprehensive about my role as a editor because although I am quite comfortable with Final Cut Pro, I still have much to learn . Despite this, I am still quite confident with my skills and will do a substantial job. I am very excited about this project because it is investigating a type of genre that I am not too familiar with and I am sure that this will be a very enriching experience. Something that I will need to keep in mind is the IB learner profile:
- "Risk Takers": to experiment with new techniques which will be important when exploring a new genre of film. Especially testing out the imagery and angles discussed in this period.
- "Open Mindedness"- to be open to everyone's ideas and not to be self centered and selfish
- "Knowledgeable" - remembering and applying the knowledge learned in class into our film
- "Reflection"- carefully reflecting on my process, the things that I did well and the things that I could have done better.
By paying close attention to these specific aspects of the IB learner profile, I believe that not only will my group be able to produce a good outcome but also gain a lot from it as well.
This lesson was dedicated to learning linear continuity. Ms. Wong explained that it basically meant the ability to make consecutive shots flow in smooth and coherent manner. This particular aspect of editing is important because the film it helps the film to flow, while still keeping the shots entertaining by taking them from different angles. In class, we saw a few clips on how some movies did their cuts; and although some where not as neat as others, they all expressed a different sensation which contributed to the atmosphere of that particular scene. (see appendix)
This incorporated, quick and choppy cuts, to express a sensation of hurriedness. Shifting between a third person view and a point of view shot to emphasize on what the character in the film is looking at. Contrasting long and shot cuts when filming two people, to hi-light their personalities and the set of circumstances that their in. Abstract editing, in which the scene cuts to between shots that are complete different. This particular editing technique was very interesting to me because what we were learning about was continuity, however, this form of editing was somewhat the opposite of that. Cutting between two contrasting shots, didn't sound like successful editing at all. However, after watching it more closely, I realized that this was a very fascinating way to convey different views on the scene in which the abstract editing took place. In the scene that we watched, it cut between a girl looking a painting and a person drowning in the water. What was not initially apparent to me, was that the cuts demonstrated what was going through the girls mind or else suggesting that she had something to do with drowning. I think that abstract editing is a very daring editing technique, because the intention may not be understood at the time, however, if it is done well, it would be very effective.
To practice our continuity editing, we filmed a scene with the 2 person dialog:
"what are you looking at?"
"you"
"who was that?"
"my mother."
Because the dialog chosen was so broad we devised our own storyline. Working with Xiang Yi, Joyce, Jing Ting and Justin, we came up with the scenario of Justin meeting his girlfriend Jing Ting (who he has a bad relationship with), the hostility between them is demonstrated in the first two lines of our dialog. Then Justin's phone rings and as he hangs up, we hi-light the fact that he says "I love you", on asking who he talked to, Justin hastily says his mother which suggests that he was talking to his other girlfriends. The scene ends with Justin rushing off and Jing Ting feeling angry, stomping out of the scene.
For such a short scene, we managed to utilize many shots. We used four shots to document Justin's process from the door to the stairs where Jing TIng was sitting. Although this may seem like an unnecessary amount of shots for such a simple action, our shot were so diverse that I think that this particular sequence of shots were very effective. First we had Justin walk towards the camera while it was shooting him from a low angle (to demonstrate that he was the more dominant figure of the two), then had him step over the camera. The third shot was of him walking towards Jing Ting which illustrated his reaction on seeing her. Then lastly took an "over the shoulder" shot to show Jing Ting's reaction on seeing him. All this time, Justin is constantly moving. Exercising what we learning in class about continuity editing, we had to make sure that the cuts and the duration of the scenes flowed in an appropriate manner. Firstly we had to shorten the shots because they were too long to convey a simple task of walking such a short distance. Then we placed the shots in a systematic sequence. After this, the shots seemed to flow quite well however, on a minor scale we also edited so that the right and left foot were synchronized between shots. That if he exited a shot with his left foot, that the next shot will be of him starting off with his left foot, because he would have already walked a step between the shots. This demonstrated the depth of our understanding and exercised our "knowledge" aspect in the IB Leaner Profile.
I also realized through editing that details matter. After watching the walking sequence a few times I still didn't think that it flowed as well as it could have and wanted to cut and extend a few choice shots. Although I ended up cut and extending a few mili-seconds worth of film, it made all the difference. I think I am also very comfortable with Final Cut Pro and can use it effectively and can also incorporate a few frequently used techniques such as lighting, speed and RGB balance. Although we didn't manage to complete our task in class, we know exactly what to do and will continue after school ready for submission on the 16th. This was a very beneficial lesson on continuity editing in which I learned lots; both from in class and also from applying my knowledge in making our short film.
Types of cuts:
- Eye-line match - switching between 3rd person view and a POV shot
- Point of view cutting - switching between two POV shots
- The match on action cut - a cut following a persons movement, usually to emphasize the character's speed or distance traveled
- Directional continuity - cuts that maintain the characters movement between shots
- Establishing shots - an extreme long and wide angle (usually) to indicate the surrounds of the scene
- Parallel/ cross cutting or abstract cutting - when the shots alternate between two seemingly unconnected shots
- Transitions - cuts, e.g.: fade, dissolve or saturate
- Rhythm - the pace of the film or cuts
Today we viewed each others edited videos. Although we were all more or less at the same level, I was learned lots about both the filming and the editing process.
Despite that we were all given the same instructions and objectives, all the groups had a their own interpretation and each produced a unique version of the specific scene. In Exercise One, (where we had to take a shot of a person crumpling and throwing away a piece of paper) Adrian was able to generate the "gritty and documentary" atmosphere very well. In terms of camera work, they hand held the camera and used simple camera angles; always only focusing on the subject. By using such rudimentary filming techniques, Adrian's group was able to achieve the "on the spot" feel of a documentary very well. His group also edited their clip very well by reducing the quality slightly and making the shot more grainy; giving it the gritty feeling. After asking him how he did it, he told me that it was all done in the "effects" tool bar in Final Cut Pro. In addition, he also included a blinking "recording" sign, often seen on the screen of the camera. I thought that this was very effective and a very unique and interesting way to demonstrate the documentary feel. Although all his editing was simple, it was none the less very effective and all contributed immensely to the atmosphere of the scene. Aside from some editing and shooting techniques, I learned to be more of a "risk taker" and to "think" outside of the box sometimes to achieve our goals. As demonstrated in Adrian's film, the "recording" sign, though it was not required in the objectives, he added it and it turned out very effective. This teaches me to sometimes use unorthodoxed methods in order to attain the desired atmosphere, that even though there might be a chance that it will not turn out as good as hoped, that there is also a chance of it turning out even better than hoped. This teaches me to be a "risk takers" and try new things. After all, this is how we are supposed to learn.
From listening to each other's sound effects, I was also able to learn different methods of producing a sound that expresses the same feel. Louise's group's sound effect of work was very different from the others because it expressed a story. The other group's sound effect for work was simply, a jumble of sounds which was effective however so stereotypical that it was slightly boring; her group however, had a very unique way of approaching this task. Rather than a myriad of sounds, it was one single track which documented a person walking to a desk (footsteps), taking out their pen and writing (clicking of pen and scratching on paper) and then packing the paper and walking away (rustling of papers and footsteps). Although there were also background noises, these particular sound effects were dominant. These sound effects were used by the other groups however the way the sound effects were arranged into a story made Louise's group's "work" soundtrack stand out. I found this interesting because it demonstrated away to create a story out of just simple sounds. This technique may be useful when doing a scene in the future where vision is deprived and had to solely depend on sounds to help the film progress. This is also another instance where "thinking" differently and interpreting objectives differently can be advantage and produce a better outcome.
From viewing other people's film, it also hi-lighted the areas which I need to work on and suggested ways in which I can improve. Firstly, I think I need to work on camera movements and framing. Through feedback, I discovered that in both my scenes, the camera movements were too static and the framing was off. In terms of camera movements, I need to improve on making my movements smoother which can be achieved through loosening the rotational joint of the tripod or simply through more practice. In terms of framing, I would make sure that in every shot, I knew exactly what I am meant to be focusing on. This is because on doing the first exercise, I focused right up against Justin's ear rather than his entire head. This somewhat ruined the atmosphere that I was planning on creating. In the future I should plan ahead and have a few practice runs before actually starting to film or else film multiple shots. I could also improve on my editing. Because I am not too familiar with Final Cut Pro, it is unrealistic to think that I could use it to its full potential from the start, but I think that from looking at my peer's films, being "open minded" to suggestions and experimenting with different functions on Final Cut Pro, I will be able to get the gist of Final Cut Pro more efficiently. Overall, this was a very insightful lesson and not only did I learn from Ms. Wong's teachings but also from giving and receiving feedback from my peers.
Today we started editing the footage we shot last period. Although the task at hand was quite simple, it was quite a lengthy process.
Before we could start editing we first had to capture the footage on Final Cut Pro but connecting the firewire to the computer, then capture, or transfer the footage into the editing program. The first scene which we had to edit was exercise two, in which we had to create a sensation of "anger" and "sadness" by altering the colours. For "anger" we decided to enhance the redness of the shot. This is because the colour red is mostly widely related to hate and contempt. Although I have had experience with Final Cut Pro, we were unsure of how to edit it and had to test out different effects. This exercised the "Thinkers" and problem solving aspects of the IB leaner profile. Soon, by using the colour balance function we managed to modify the RGB (red, green, blue) colour schemes. By emphasizing the redness and making the shot slightly brighter, it was able to convey a sensation of anger. One unanticipated advantage our the location of the shot, was the red brick staircase was a natural sources of red as well and was very compatible when enhancing the redness of the shot.
Secondly, we had to convey an atmosphere of sadness and grief using the same shot. We did this by doing the opposite of what we did when conveying the sense of anger. We did this by enhancing the blues and purples of the shot and making the shot slightly dimmer. The "cool" darker colours provided an aura of sadness; the outcome was quite successful. In addition adjusting the colours we also explored some other functions. One of which was the speed, or frames per second, of the shots. Xiang Yi suggested that we slow the shot down when the actor was surprised to emphasize his emotions. By making the shot 50fps rather than the original 100fps, it blurred the shot as well as slowing it down and we were very content with the outcome.
Other than footage editing, we also did some sound editing. While brainstorming on how we can improve our "work" sound effect; we decided that we can have multiple tracks going on simultaneously to obtain the "busy" feel. Ms.Wong also got us to contemplate what other sounds may be present in a work environment and we soon devised many more sounds that we could incorporate, such as: a phone ringing, the hitting of keys on a calculator, coughing and the rustling of paper. We also made the sound effect more realistic by typing and writing naturally, in a systematic way, as supposed to the original random typing and scribbling which just sounded very messing. After capturing the new sound recording and overlapping the new clip and the original clip we obtained a very convincing sound effect of work.
Today we more of a self-learning lesson. Rather than being taught, we learned from solving problems and from each other. Both in the editing process and in the filming process, we had little guidance and had to interpret our instructions by ourselves. I learned to be a "risk taker" by slowing down the dramatic frames to enhance certain emotions and features and well as be "open minded" to ideas such as overlapping the sounds clips to achieve a more realistic result. And I think we all benefited from deciphering the many functions on Final Cut Pro. Overall, although we had little experience with the program, using the knowledge that we knew, we were able to reason with each other which function to use and obtained a very pleasing outcome.
Today was our first film lesson of the semester and we started off the lesson by going over what we would cover in the film and the skills that we would have to develop through the course of this unit.
The units were similar to the ones last year, however this year it would be a lot more in-depth; especially in cinematography and sound editing. In addition, we would also explore a new unit: film analysis. I am very interested to learn about this particular aspect of film because I would be able to learn the outcomes of specific camera movements and shots, dialogs and editing. By watching and critically analyzing films on a minor scale it will reveal many references to the storyline of the film which is essential in aiding it to progress. This knowledge will also no doubt be useful in my personal filming experience and will also hopefully allow me to appreciate films more fully.
We also went over the "IB Learners Profile" which are the guide lines and characteristics to adapt when doing film. The ones that I will pay closer attention to would be "open mindedness" and "risk taking" because I think that these are my weaker areas that need to be accounted for.
By way of a recap of the cinematography skills learned last year, we did an exercise on experimenting on different techniques to achieve the designated outcome. Our first exercise incorporated a person crumpling up a piece of paper and throwing it on the floor, however we had to film it twice, creating two different types of feel each time. The first feel was a sharp and detailed effect. Our group achieved this by using many extreme close angle shots, with emphasis on the face and paper, because they were the main subjects of the scene. By using close shots, it highlights the actors features and the set of circumstances which they are in, thus achieving the detailed affect. The second shot had to create a gritty and documentary feel. This we had a little bit of trouble expressing (no doubt exercising the "thinkers" and "inquires" aspects of the IB learner profile), so we asked Ms Wong for advice and obtained many tips on how to achieve the gritty atmosphere. She first told us to think about the kind of characteristics of a documentary; would there be an extensive diversity of angles, will there be much cinematographic aspects to it (as suppose to a movie), she also suggested that we use the "hand held" technique to give the gritty and "on the spot" sensation. In the end we hand held the camera and used minimal camera angles and we were very content with the our outcome because it achieved the rough feeling that we anticipated.
Our second exercise depicted a person walking up the stairs then looking up in surprise. In the first scenario, we had to adjust the colour to express anger and surprise. This we did by increasing the light exposure slightly, making the shot bright and more accommodating to the "angry" sensation. We also plan to make the shot a bit redder on Final Cut Pro, which will also add to the anger. We also hand held the camera and made it a "point of view shot" because we thought it would add to the surprised effect. In the second scenario, we had to achieve a sad and melancholy feel. Somewhat like the opposite to the what we did in the "angry" shot, we made the shot a bit darker by reducing the light exposure and plan to enhance the cool colours on Final Cut which will aid the miserable feeling that is expressed. We also used one long range shot to create the sensation of smallness and isolation, which helped express the sadness. This proved to be very successful.
Lastly, we did an exercise on sound effects. Having done sound effects before last year, this was quite easy to pick up and we all had many ideas on how to achieve a certain sound effect. When doing the sound effect for "work" we all came up with the ideas of having the sounds of "pencil on paper, typing, crumpling paper, indistinct background talking and occasional coughs". This turned out quite well however I think that we could have incorporated more sounds to enhance the "busy" sensation and capture the "hustle and bustle" atmosphere of work. Secondly, we also did a sound effect on "joy" which we achieved by having cheering noises, clapping, yelling and laughing. This was effective however, it was I found it very stereotypical and boring and I hope that we could achieve the atmosphere differently. Possibly adding music in the background and having more people participating in the sound effect.
Overall this was a very beneficial lesson; we learned from two different ways, firstly through Ms Wong's teachings and secondly through our own problem solving. This lesson exercised the "inquires", "knowledgeable" and "thinkers" aspects of our IB learners profile. We also learned to work effectively with each other and work together to achieve our goal. I think my group and I worked very well together and all weighed in to help complete our task.
