March 18, 2009

We continued working on our Portal Chase Scene project today. Still in the pre-production stages of our film, this lesson was dedicated to working and finalizing our storyboard, locations and types of portals that we would use and the music for our short film.

Having decided that we use a student-teacher chase scene as our subject, we used today's lesson to build on this idea. Two main things that we added to our story was 1) The incorporation of a device, which allows the main character to travel around. 2) During the course of the story, the device malfunctions and transports the main character to random places where he didn't intend on going; consequently, this will land him in main awkward and embarrassing positions and will cause more people to chase him. The result will be pandemonium in which the main character who initially started off with just the teacher chasing him, will be chased by a whole crowd of people.

To help us with our project we searched "portals chase scenes" on youtube and found numerous sights. One helpful one we found was at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjZhkAwQVXQ.
This was particularly helpful because it was done by IB students in Canada and showed how other students of our age can produce a portal chase scene. One instance in which they demonstrated a very interesting portal technique was during 0:33 - 0:47. There was a set of staircases and a corridor and basically the boy and the pursuer were running into an opening and coming out of another. This was exactly what we had intended on doing in our own film and it was beneficial to see how other people had executed it. This concept was also demonstrated in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OylyabAhTQ&feature=channel_page at 4:28-4:5. One thing I learned about doing portals in one central location was that it is always possible to notice when a cut is made because of lighting or else a change of position of an object. The main problem about doing portals in one location is that it will change. However, through watching these videos, as the cameraman I learned a few tips which will help our portals seem more convincing. Firstly, is to try to have a "corridor portal" (or a portal which is shot at a central location) indoors. This will ensure the that lighting is kept constant. It is also advised that it be shot indoors because in the "Tag" video, there were swaying trees in the background which changed position every time there was cut. This flawed the continuity and made the portals less convincing. Secondly, the camera should be placed in a location in which all the openings (doors, any opening in which the portal will take place) can be seen clearly. This will be useful in enhancing the realistic value of the portals.

Here are some situations in which the main character will land in by accident:
1. A family settling down for a calm and formal dinner. Gets chased by the dad.
2. Two couples in a kissing scene. Gets chased by both the boy and the girl.
3. The girls bathroom. Gets chased by the girl who is applying make up in there.
4. The beach, where he knocks over a child's sand castle. Get chased by a kid.

I'm aware that most of these locations are out of the way and will take a while to film, however, I'm sure that when we enter in further into the planning process, we would be able to make some compromises. With such a vast array of locations and situations that the character "lands into" it would also mean that we would have to incorporate numerous characters and actors. This may also prove to be problematic in the filming process as we would have to have many sets and actors and manage to get all the footage within a designated time.

Today was a very productive lesson in which we got most of the storyboard and the music sorted. Although both are not finished, we have a good insight into what we want to produce. Personally, as camera person through watching those videos, I learned a lot about how portals can be made more realistic through certain locations and camera angles. This lesson exercised my ability to "think" about the ways to make the portals as real as possible and they ways to make the cuts between the scenes less noticeable. Through today's lesson I know that these two main things are 1) location and 2) lighting. I also extended my "knowledge" through my extended research and was able to "reflect" on the techniques that they used to produced their portals and they ways we could imitate and possibly do even better.