Friday 22 July 2011

Task
Deadline

Research into short film or film promotion.

Generic research into at least 4 short films.

Liar chart of aux products. Theory of film genre.

Storyboards, animatic, photoshoots, sketches, drafts, screen shots, skills development from Foundation
On going- keep adding to blog

Aims and context

1. The situation: opens the story and may be disrupted.

2. Whose situation is it?- identifies the protagonist.

3. Central quest or conflict? What has the protagonist to resolve?

4. Who stands in the way of success? The antagonist.

5. How does the quest end?

Show, don't tell!

If its a genre specific film then define those conventions you will use.

Consider, sound
Scripting: 1st draft

Mood board about film




Drawn storyboard & location stills

Upload to blog as an animatic
















Shooting schedule prepared for shooting over summer hols








Summer hols:

1. Shoot footage for short film or trailer

2. Continue with research on blog






Upload footage, edit & produce first rushes by







Presentation of 1st edit to audience.

Prepare questions you want target audience to answer in feedback session.

Begin research for aux products.

Catch up on any outstanding work

½ term

Research, plan and shoot for auxiliary artefacts.

Poster, radio trailer or film review for Short film.

Homepage, poster or magazine cover for Film Promo



Individual deadlines for these, plan your time !




Re-focus on editing, re shoot parts that need it.

Final presentation with aux products

Record focus group feedback
Friday 3rd December

Analyse your work in terms of Media Language, Genre, Narrative, Representation, Audience.

Write a script incorporating this as a ‘Directors commentary’ to be recorded over your film. This is instead of a formal written evaluation so it must be good!



Friday 10th December

Edit above footage.

Ensure blog is complete, all research etc in place.

Submit
Friday 17th December
Checklist
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/52327125?access_key=key-1a3au3hsvb2nkgwk9c5y

Monday 18 July 2011

The Great Train Robbery 1903

These films show film makers attempts at creating a 'narrative'. This one in particular shows how important editing and using different shot types is.

Almost an example of how not to do it! Needs faster editing and a wider variety of shot types and camera angles.








The film used a number of innovative techniques including cross cutting, double exposure composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting. Cross-cuts were a new, sophisticated editing technique. Some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes.The film uses simple editing techniques (each scene is a single shot) and the story is mostly linear (with only a few "meanwhile" moments), but it represents a significant step in movie making, being one of the first "narrative" movies of significant length.

Le Voyage dans la Lune 1902



A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la lune) is a 1902 French black and white silent science fiction film. It is loosely based on two popular novels of the time: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells







The film was written and directed by Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston. The film runs 14 minutes if projected at 16 frames per second, which was the standard frame rate at the time the film was produced. It was extremely popular at the time of its release and is the best-known of the hundreds of fantasy films made by Méliès. A Trip to the Moon is the first science fiction film, and utilizes innovative animation and special effects, including the iconic shot of the rocketship landing in the moon's eye

It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century
Still influential today...
see Smashing Pumpkins video for Tonight Tonight







This is a good example of post modern, intertextuality. Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can refer to an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined by poststructuralist Julia Kristeva in 1966. As critic William Irwin says, the term “has come to have almost as many meanings as users, from those faithful to Kristeva’s original vision to those who simply use it as a stylish way of talking about allusion and influence”. Kristeva's ideas have been linked amongst others to Saussure's (1913) theories of semiotics and Roland Barthes. Barthes's many monthly contributions that made up Mythologies (1957) would often interrogate pieces of cultural material to expose how bourgeois society used them to assert its values upon others. Roland Barthes's incisive criticism contributed to the development of theoretical schools such as structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, Marxism and post-structuralism. While his influence is felt in every field concerned with the representation of information and models of communication, including computers, photography, music, and literature. Barthes’ work was ever adapting and refuting notions of stability and constancy means there is no canon of thought within his theory to model one's thoughts upon, and thus no "Barthesism". His works remain valuable sources of insight and tools for the analysis of meaning in any given manmade representation

Lumieres Brothers

The first films produced were short. Film was very expensive, they didnt have batteries to power cameras etc.













The Lumiere Brothers were groundbreakers in the field. Each of these films are 17 metres long, when handcranked translates to 50 seconds. They mainly produced 'actualities', that reflected everyday life, or mini documentaries. Maybe you would like to produce an 'actualite' of your own?









They toured with their work using a Cinematograph which effectively functioned as camera, projector and printer all in one.




The Lumiere Brothers have been credited with over 1,425 different short films and had even filmed aerial shots years before the very first aiplane would take to the skies.






















The Lumières pioneered not just the technical attributes of the camera but also its artistic attributes, creating a dialogue of REALISM that has always been a crux of cinema.




These early, silent films are useful to look at, not only to give you some historical context into the development of film, but also to pin point the evolution of the visual language and grammar of film that has formed the codes and conventions we take for granted today.

Work for Wednesday

1. You must prepare a 'treatment', in the form of a powerpoint, explaining your ideas for your short film/documentary or trailer.
You should include:
1. Your mood board
2. films that have influenced you
3. synopsis of the storylinelocation shots (google earth will do)
4. your talent, any props, costumes you will require


You will get feedback from me and your classmates on your ideas.
You then need to storyboard your ideas so you can start filming over the summer holidays.

Sunday 10 July 2011

Work for Monday

I am on a course tomorrow so your work for Mondays lesson is as follows:

1. Read the examiners report from last years advanced portfolio and list 10 pointers that you feel will be useful to you.

2. Create an interactive mood board about your intital ideas for your project. Look here for an example.

On Mood boards: The purpose of a mood board is to set the tone & style of a design effort, without the distraction of flow and architecture. Design mood boards include color, pattern, photography style, typography and illustrative & graphic design elements to inspire and to build on the brand and establish a vision for the final site design. It is void of form & function intentionally, with a goal of circumventing issues late in the design process that may alter "skeletal elements due to a surface issue". They are solely to create an emotional impact and an environment in which to convey and relay information. In the end you have a visual toolkit or resource in which to build a foundation for a mockup in which you apply the elements to the framework created in the wireframes. Mood boards visually communicate where words fail, facilitate a faster design mockup delivery, & reinforce the client input and assist in their ultimate approval.
“A mood board is a type of poster design that may consist of images, text, photographs, sketches, clippings, fabric swatches, color samples and samples of objects in a composition of the choice of the mood board. The collage (actual or virtual) sets the mood and atmosphere of a scenario, through the use of colour, tone and texture. A mood board is a tool used by designers to help them get a good idea of what their clients are looking for.”

3. Pick a quote from the above explanation to give your mood board entry a theoretical focus.

Try one of these sites to help you:
stixy
pinterest
zoo tool

There is a flickr site with lots of examples of mood boards.

Choose the format you feel most comfortable with.

Monday 4 July 2011

Today we watched and discussed your first short films 'The Phone Call'.

Then we watched the very shocking 'About a Girl'

Homework is to research the background of the making a little more and to write your own reaction to the film.