media studies 2009-2011

Filming -
Through the process of filming the opening for the film we didnt need to used any programs. we just used the standard equipment on location and filmed.

Editing -
While editing we had to use a number of programs such as Premier: this programs is the editing programs which we had to use and us used in the editing suite. the program is on the computers used and we just had to record what we had filmed on to the tape with the camera and copy it on to the program to be then cut down into seperate shots and edited. we cut out any parts that we didnt need such as the shots that were in appropriate and were not needed.

Planning -
While planning this was when we used a large amount of the programs.
We used programs such as YouTube, Google, WordPress, windows media player & windows wordPress.

All movies have some sort of company ident at the begining. The company ident usually matching to the genre of movie that the company specialise in and the name. Companies such as ‘DreamWorks’ they use a evening setting blue sky with a cloud/half moon with a person sat on it. The ident looks dreamy, hence mathing the name of the company. also it has a relaxing feel to it to match the companies speciality of family films such as Shrek and Toy Story.

For our ident we wanted the colours to be dark and dingy to match the genre of the horror/thriller. Also we felt that the city feel for the background met a match with the film opening individually as the opening is set in a small village area which clearly may be a housing estate so we used a chity for the vackground of the ident. Also the opening is set in the evening so therefore we used an evening sky and also we felt that the setting time of the ident and the movie match the dark and dingy and uncomfortable feeling to the opening for the movie and the ident that we wanted.

The reason that we called the ident company “SIMLEY” was because we both wanted a say in the ident name and mention in it but also we wanted something individial and wierd as alot of thrillers tend to be odd. SIMLEY is a word with both our  names involved. SIM being me (simone) and LEY being my partner (Hayley) who i worked with for this project.

we chose the ident to be darker than the setting of the eveing in our opening as if we had gone ahead to shoot the film as a whole feature/full length film then this would later on be the late night setting so we wanted that to be used as we were only shooting the opening.

The Ring is a phsicological horror movie that was made in 2002. It was directed by a director called Gore Verbinski. He is also well known for directing the first and the sequels for pirates of the caribbean. Curse of the black pearl. The dead mans chest and at worlds end.

The movie begins like any other movie, with the compant ident. The compant ident of this film is dreamworks which is a very well recognised company ident. This is used in the opening by being in as a close up of the ‘D’ and the clouds and then pans accross to the right capturing all of the clouds around the titles. Unlike many other film studios, while using the ident they theme it around the movie and the genre. e.g. they use a creepy and eerie music which is diagetic. Unlike other movie that they have released such as the Shrek series which is green to represent the main charactor and the use of humor as it is a comedy. Also the contrast and the brightness used is dark to set tension and mood to the opening. Because the movie is based around a cursed videotape, as the company ident goes out into the wide shot and the whole caption is visable the picture theres a grain used which is a flicker like an old style movie reel. once again to set mood and to match the whole plot of the movie. Not only is the sounds eerie its only the sound of a old movie reel which isnt really ask creepy as it is made out to be on the opening. Once the whole comany ident has been shown for a very short second the picture fades out to black. This lasts for a brief 3seconds. Then it fades in to a shot of a big house. because of the locations theme and the weather this is used to relate to the codes and conventions of the locations theme and therefore creates suspense and tension.

The new shot that is faded into a medium shot of a large house, it has an eerie feeling to it. Also the sound has crossed over from a non-diatetic sound of a video reel to the sounds of pitter pattering rain around the house. The contrast and brightness is dark and bleak and the shadows and shapes of the house establishable as the hosue has all of the lights on and they are shining through the windows on to the grounds of the house establishing the location. Then the house is zoomed into slowly, as the house is zoomed into the sound of the rain gets heavier and heavier. The size of the house shows the viwer that whoever lives hear is a wealthy charactor and cant have any problems until the plot begins and the problems start. On the house theres one window with a light on which shows that this is the one room of the house that is occupied at the moment, and is going to be the basis of the opening. to the left of the shot theres a tree, as the zooming just passes the tree the dialogue of a young girl begins who identity is not established at the moment.

Then theres an unusual hiss and the shot is now taking place in the room which is occupied obviously which has the light on which can be seen from outside of the house. Theres two girls watching tv, it is a wide/ two shot and most of the bedroom is viewable. It appears to be messy like an average teenagers bedroom in which clothes are scattered around and only the bed which one of the girls are on appears to be tidy from what can be seen of it. the light from the tv is refelcted onto the girls faces and the light of the tv is also lighting up the whole room as theres no lights on and thats the only light source in the room.

In this picture Hayley has set up the tripod and is getting the camera ready to mount onto the tripod. the reason a tripod is used is to keep the image steady so that the camera isnt dropped and damaged during filming and also so that the video is steady and the audience will then still be abwle to see the video clearly and it wont be disorientated.

 Here hayley is ssetting up the tripod ready to have the camera mounted. the tripod is very sterdy and is kept steady with three legs which adjust to height of the user so that the user can still see through the viewing lens of the camera and they can still properly see what is being fiolmed by the camera.

This picture is on the camera with the battery pack attached, the powerpack is the cameras energy source and obviously would not work without the power pack. The battery has to be attached to the camera in a specific way of it would fall off and become damaged.

This picture is of the video tape being placed into the camera. once the battery has been attached the tape can then go in. To put the video tape into the video camera, theres a small button that needs to be moved towards the lens cap of the camera, this opwens the part up of the camera where it goes. automatically once opened the main video case in the camera will move up and open so that the user can then place the video tape into the camera to be used for recording.

 This is a picture of the camera being slotted onto the tripod and then clipped into place. the camera is slotted and then clipped uinto place so that it doesnt move around and the picture is then clear and it is a smooth conversion while filming.

 This is an image of me checking the sound of the camera. if the camera and the microphone(s) are pointing to something that is very loud or the microphone is being used for the wrong sound purpose then the sounds will be very messy and disorientated. therefore the audience will not be able to make out what the sounds is. the main problem that we came accross with the microphones while filming outside was that the microphones had the wind blowing past them so the wind was picked up and the sound was not clear. but we fixed it by refilming and then adding diagetic sound to the overall final product.

 In this picture I am checking the camera and tripods movement. At the beginning of the opening there had to be an establishing shot to establish to the audience where the scene is taking place and the location. For our establishing shot we wanted a stead wide/medium shot with a pan to the right and then stop on the swing where Shannon was before Andy came into the shot. We would not have made a steady transition of the shot if the tripods movement had been jerking and unsteady so therefore we had to restrict movements up and down on the tripod while we were filming the shots. By this point the camera and the tripod were all set up and we were ready to start filming out opening.

This image is of me clipping the camera onto the camera stand/tripod. the camera has to be slipped and then slipped onto the tripod so that is remains steady and doesnt move around. This makes transitions such as pans left,right,up and down much smoother with no problems and therefore the shot will not be messy.

Through out the preporation and editing of our film we used a number of programs to gain the best results out of our work. We used programs such as youtube, premier etc.

photoshop
premier
youtube
google

Storyboard shot numbers – approx. 15
day or night – night, early evening
Starting time – 7pm
Synopsis (e.g. chase/kidnap) – chase scenes withy car
Assembly location – Scruton
Probable wrap time – 1hr

Cast/personnel - Shannon Galloway as Girl being stalked
                         – Andy Roberts as Stalker in car
Extras - none
Stunts/SFX - none
Props - Andys car for stalker
         – Swing
Wardrobe - Girl being stalked: everyday clothes
               _ stalker: dark clothes/everyday clothes
Risk assessment notes - Swing: swing old and unstable therefore girl will not sswing fully to avoid injust and damage to prop. 
                                   – Obsticles: go around location and remove any unnecessary objects on location that may cause injury.

Technicalresponsibilities -
               Camera: H.S.
               Direction: S.M.
               Continuity: H.S. & S.M.
               Lighting: H.S. & S.M.
               Props & management: H.S. & S.M.
               Return college equipment: H.S. & S.M.
               Tape Logging: H.S. & S.M.

Notes:
  Successes- good location
   Failures – too dark to film
                  – use of cra too complicated
Revisions and corrections to be done:
    – revision of storyboard without the use of the car as a prop

Establishing shot – wide shot of location and swing is visable.

CROSS OVER CREDIT

Long shot - closer to swing the girl hears crack of the broken branch under stalkers foot and stops swinging and stands up puzzled.

Close up/over the shoulder shot – see girls excpression and the stalkers siloet behind her over the shoulder

Girl then walks out of shot and the guy walks out of the light of the street light to show thaty the stalker is a stalker and is after the girl that was on the swing.

CROSS OVER CREDIT

Long/mid shot – set on the street, girl walks around the corner into the shot, past the camera and the silhouette is seen coming around the corner and then stops. identity of stalker still unestablishable.

Over the shoulder shot – behind the silhouette watching the girl walking away and around the corner

CROSS OVER CREDIT

*chaange time of watches and record sound of church bell ringing as girl checks her watch and see’s that it is a certain time. film sound of bell seperatly to film  of girl checking watch. checking watch will be a close up

log/mid shot - girl comes around corner and camera pans as she walks – stops – and then lifts her wrist to look at the watch in the gap between her face and chin the stalkers silhouette is still establishable coming towards the girl to show that the girl still is not safe.

Close up – girl checks her watch see lower body of silhouette/stalker in the background unfocused.
girl then turns head to look at stalker appraching looking paniced bresthing heavy church bell stop chimming.

The opening of The Shining begins with the Warner Bros’ Pictures compant ident. This last for 10seconds and then it fades to plain black and then a clear cut to the establishing shot. The first part of the establishing shot consists of a large lake clearly shot in a Valley in Amercia. For the far end of the lake whre the establishing shot begins thereis a very small bit of land visable, but at first it not clearly visable what it is or what is going on there. The shot of the lake has the reflection of the valleys cliff faces either side to make it look closed out cut off from the rest of the world. At this point the camera movesw down the lake and through the valley until itnreaches the very small bit of land that is in the middle of the lake. Once the camera gets xclose to the camera that the audience can see that the small piece of land consists of forst trees and is of no importance the camera tilts to the right and around the island there. For this shot a helicopter must have been used. the camera keeps tilting to the right o show more and more of the land right to the right of the valley to show greenery and rocks etc.

In the next part of the opening the establishing shot has fades out and the next shot is faded into while being crossed over. the next sequence is an ariel shot from above of a long winding road through what seems to be a forest. from the previous shots this must be what is up on the valley edges that could be vaigly seen in the first establishing shot. The lighting is rather light so the setting is in the afternoon. the road used establishes that a journey is taking place, one of the charactors is taking a journey to a new place, this is building tension as no-one knows what the approaching location may be. After a few seconds of this shot a car is visable on the road, this is the point where the charactors identities are about to be established to the audience. for awhile the camera follows the road while remaining in the aerial shot of the road and land from above. the camera follows the road around all of the corners that the car take by turning with the road and winding around.

Just as the camera goes to turn around a second corner there is a cut to another shot to show progression of the journey. This new shot is at a lower level closer to land level, this shot is a wide/long shot. it shows the car even closer so that the make and the colour can be made out now and also the audience is able to establish the location that the car is moving and where to as more of the location can be seen. The location is definatly still establishable as the lake is now used again. the lake is to the left of the car so this could mean that the lake in the establishing shot at the begining of the opening is used in the laction of the up and coming film. While the car is staill travelling at a continuing speed the camera is still higher than the car and the camera is still twisting and panning left and right to follow the road that the car is travelling along to make the audience feel that they are very much involved in the events that take place in the movie.

Throughout the travelling sequence in the opening the camera always cuts to a new shot during a tip ot the side to follow the car around a unknown corner. This new cut in the opening cuts to a close up of the side of the valleywhere the establishing shot took place next to the lake in the establishing shot. The car is now entering the establishing shot location from a location that the audience don’t know, this is the whole movies location now. As the car moves along the valley the car follows the car along the road that travels along the edge of the valleys cliff that dips down to the lake. At this point that camera has raised to an even higher level above the car and the lake and 3 parts if the shot (lake, cliff/valley & sky) are visable. this is another widelong shot that is used. As the camera follows the car is begins to approach the car getting closer and closer and begins to dip to a level where it is almost the same level as the car. By this point the audience are even closer to the charactors and the up and coming situation and the credits then begin to appear.

In the sequence with the credits, a plain font is used in blue with a tinted outline/background of a darker blue. The colour blue is used in sync with the calm situation of the car moving through the picturesc landscapes. this shows that at the moment at time theres not peril though it is clear that later three will me peril and danger. The credits roll up from bottom and out of the top. this is continuous while the film is still being used and the travelling car is still visable to the audience. on the second credit reading the main actor ‘jack nicholson’ the shots are now a while shot and at a steady level thats now the same as the car on the road right behind it. now we can see that reginstration plate etc. of the car.  Then the shot over takes the vehical to give the impression of being in a passing car on the road and taking over the car that the camera has been follow9ing previously throughout the opening. but instead of carrying on over the roads and around all the bensds of the road especially the approaching corner of the road, the camera continues ahead over the corner and travels straight accross the landscape of the lake and the rest of the valley so that the audience can see the up and coming location that the car is about to aopproach in the valley. This is set with a wide shot. This continues for approx3-4 seconds.

then the credit is the title of the movie “THE SHINING” as it approaches the higher part of the shot to exit the shot changes once again back to the car in a new location that appears to be a forest, the shot is getting darker now as the final location is being approached and the shots are getting darker to show the period of time that has been travelled. we now know that whatever journey was taken, it was a long one. In this shot an aerial shot is used once again. As the car enters a tunnel that briefly goes deeper into the cliff face of the valley and exits back out and on the road where the car is back into view of the audience the camera tilts to the left, still in an aerial shot and swurves around the rock face until it reaches the end and then the camera follows a car again. Now theres another car which bring the impression that theres another sociaty near by so the final location for the movie is approaching and the charactors journey is almost over.

Microphones are a piece of vital equipment that is found in alsorts of pieces of electrical equiment from phones to computers and even recording studios. Without realising people use microphones on a daily basis. Throughout filiming close attention is to be taken to the sound and what type of microphone is used as any disruptive and unappropriate sound thats picked up can change the mood and emotion of the scene compaired to how the director origionally wanted it to be. To avoid this, there are different microphones that have different functions e.g. a voice microphone can be used for voice and to pick up dialogue as it is so sensitive i can pick up whispering very clearly and easily.