May 04, 2009

Screening Day.

After many delays, the day to view our films finally arrived. Having finished early, our group had many opportunities to fine adjust our films; making our portals more realistic, making finer cuts and sorting out the subtitles and credits. Overall, I am quite confident in our film.

Say Cheese (Adrian, Ashley, Bernice, Raphael, Sarah)
Story
First off the poster was very good and after watching their film, proved to be an accurate and effective insight into their story and explored themes. In terms of story, I think that the "stalker on crutches" worked quite well, however only to a certain extent. I found it very menacing and unique to have the stalker limping but I don't think it was very realistic to have a cripple chasing a person so closely and eventually catching them too, It was all too unrealistic for me, Despite this, this character managed to achieve its goal of scaring the audience nonetheless. The storyline was simple yet effective, comprised of a chase scene. The portals used were of great diversity, exploring a variety of different locations.

Camera Techniques
The camera technique used were effective but not especially diverse. With a chase scene, I would think that a variety of camera angles could be utilized. However, the angles used were simple and were reused. I think that if more angles were used it would have made the chase scenes more enjoyable and account better for the good storyline. One good camera technique, which I think was applied very effectively were the point of view shots. This was a very good type of shot to facilitate the tension stricken chase scene. I especially enjoyed the blinking when doing the point of view shots.

Editing
The cinematography of "Say Cheese" was very well done. The dim lighting was very appropriate in conveying the creepy sensation. I noticed when shooting in dim locations that they paid attention to the three points of lighting, this played out very well in their film. Also in terms of music, the music was well chosen and through using crescendos was able to build up tension effectively. I also found the balance between non-diagetic sound and diagetic was very good. Overall, this was a very enjoyable film which illustrated some film noir techniques learned from the previous unit.
____________________________________________________________________________

Babushka (Camille, Catherine, Chris, Xiang Yi)
Story
I thought the story was good because it was applicable to the portals situation however, the way the story was illustrated made it difficult to follow and made it messy. I enjoyed the idea of people chasing after something, but I found this too simple and the plot had to be better developed. In terms of portal, the portals used were also quite limited, exploring a small range of locations. With a flexible storyline I think it would be more effective if more diverse portals were used.

Camera Techniques
The techniques used were very simple. Thought this was appropriate, it made the chase scenes not as entertaining as it could have been. There was one shot that stood out which was at the start of the film where the the babushka doll fell off the table and on to a street. This match on action cut was very interesting and worked very well as a portal, however, this was the only one and the film took somewhat of a turn for the worst from that point onwards. There was also one continuous shot where the camera is following Xiang Yi, this would have worked quite well however the footsteps of the camera man could have been heard, which caused some misunderstanding as to whose footsteps those belonged to.

Editing
Continuity was huge issue in this film. Although it is a portal film, the portals were not very well developed which obstructed the plot and caused a lot of confusion. In the "cha chan teng" scene, there was also a lot of back light which silhouetted the characters. In terms of cinematography, the was a lot of red tint in a few shots. This would not be a problem if it were constant however this varied between shots and posed as a huge continuity error.
____________________________________________________________________________

Wabbit Hunt (Henry, Elliot, Joyce, Justin)
Story
The story of our film was quite intricate and we had to pay close attention as how to illustrate the story effectively and clearly. This was done through our subtitles. By having the instructions of the device displayed on the screen, it allowed the audience to clearly understand the ramifications of the device. Overall, I was very content with our storyline as well as the numerous portal that we used. One improvement that we could have done was to explore more locations with our portals. Although numerous, our portals took place in one location, because of this I don't think we manipulated the idea of portal to its fullest potential.

Camera techniques
I don't think a whole range of camera angles were used. Although there was some diversity, I think that with more variety it would have made the scenes more interesting. A few shots that I was quite happy with are the low angle shots with Daniel to emphasize his sense of control and ending shot where Justin is "small" compared with the others, symbolizing his defeat.

Editing
The editing was very well done. There were a few good match on action cuts which were very smooth. Another feature that I enjoyed was the sped up motion of the characters. Although this was slightly disorientating at times, this contributed to the comedic Charlie Chaplin characteristic we were trying to achieve. The music was the very well chosen. Not only did it contribute to the silent movie atmosphere but also worked very effectively and was compatible with our footage. The sound effects used, especially the *beep* sound that the device makes when pressed, was very useful in showing exactly where portals take place to avoid any confusion. One problem that I found quite apparent was the back lighting which was very strong in a few shots, especially in the first DT scene. To avoid this we could have either used the back light function on the camera, make the lighting dimmer on Final Cut Pro or else simply pull down the blinds. In terms of cinematography, I think that we could have done more to make the lighting more contestant between shots especially the ones with portals; this will make them more realistic and seamless. This can also be done using the three way colour corrector.
____________________________________________________________________________

High Octane (Andy, Louise, Ella, Jeff)
Story
I found the story of a schizophrenic was very applicable to our "portals" theme, this is because in many ways portal reflects the schizophrenic nature. The story was very profound and intricate, however was carried out very well. The portals explored were of a very large variety. The choice of location were great. One improvement would be to simply have more portals.

Camera Techniques
One scene that stood out was the opening sequence of shots. The way the main character was introduced, was done very effectively. Starting out with a long shot (allowing the audience a chance to see the character's surroundings) then zooming in. The ensuing shots of the character taking the pill was executed very well. Rather than filming the character's tedious motion of standing up, walking to the window sill, taking the pill out from its bottle and swallowing. There was a quick succession of shots, showing glimpses of what the character was doing, but enough to know exactly what is going on. I found this very entertaining and very effective in showing something that is boring and long in a very proficient yet interesting manner. The point of view and dolley shots were also done very well and achieved its purpose effectively.

Editing
The cinematography was very well done, the lighting and colouring were constant throughout the film. The music worked well, however did not fit the footage as well as it could have. One piece of editing which really caught my attention was the last shot which was used a split screen from two individual shots, this allowed them to have to of the same actors in the same shot together. I also enjoyed the way that they manipulated their locations and the set. One shot they had the character walk down the art corridor where there are massive windows. Utilizing the bright and excessive light, a very unique warm atmosphere was created.

Overall, I have learned a great deal from this lesson. From watching the film from my peers, not only did I see how differently they interpreted the "portals" theme but the camera techniques and editing methods that were used to make their film. From watching films by my peers who all started out at the same level and exposed to the same amount of knowledge, I learned a lot about our capacity for "risk taking" and "knowledge" as an aspiring film maker. I learned to be "open minded" to the techniques portrayed in their films, be "balanced" in terms of finding the correct relationship between showing and telling the story and lastly to be "reflective" of what I have learned from my experiences and from others.