Post 12: Advanced Production Skills Workshop Two

 Direction of Light

With light, there is always a point in which is it's brightest and a point in which it starts to wonder off. In order that while filming our short film we get the best possible lighting that is most applicable for the scene that we are in, we have studied some of the lighting effects and how to get these effects, using different tools.

To get some examples in our heads before we started our experiments, here are some that show different directions from Madonna's music video 'Vouge'.

Here, you can see how the light has illuminated on Madonna's face, and this was probably done with reflectors, as she wouldn't have wanted the light in her face.

With this frame, the model has been spot lighted with a high light onto him. This is so you can clearly see him, but this also has created an eery cast shadow on the wall to the left of him.

Direction Experiment

To be able to understand how the direction of light applies in person, we conducted an experiment to show this. As a group, we used different tools to deflect the light, and use different angles to show different effects this can have on the model. We were given different tools to experiment with including

* Foil


* A white sheet
* Black wrap
Alongside these, we used equipment such as a Mini DV camera, a tripod, batteries, base plate, tape, laminated white board and marker pens, one lower pro 250w lamp, one stand, chimera and diffusion attatchments, speed ring, scissors, saftey gloves and an extention lead .
 
We also were to try different angles of light including side lighting, high lighting, bottom lighting and face on lighting.
                                                             

Before starting this experiment, we discussed what we predicted all the different tools would do. As a group, we predicted that the white sheet would make less shadows and lighten the face of the model, the black wrap wouldn't make that much difference, the foil would reflect on the person's face more and that the black wrap wouldn't make much difference.

We also thought that with just the light on the subject, depending on where it was positioned, it would produce cast shadows behind the subject, as well as on the face.

However these are mere predictions and we would find out after the experiment which ones we got right and what ones we got wrong.

                                                        
The factors that we would have to measure include the effect of the tool on the model. This is the main aspect that we have to measure, as when we find out what the effect of each of the different tools have, this will help us to decide whether we need to use these tools when we film our short film.

                                                
Some of the factors we will have to change include the tools that we will be using to change the effect and direction of light as this will help us to see the range of effects they produce.  However, we would need to keep the subject the same, as well as the camera position. This is so we can see the exact change in the light, and if this was changed half way through, the lighting would have changed and so would the shadows; this would be misleading and would not give us the correct information.

Our Experiment:

Conclusion

Here are some screen grabs from our experiment.

From this screen grab, you can see that there is a point in which the light starts to wonder off, and this is creeping around the subject. There is also a cast shadow behind him, and this is blocked from him. This teaches us that we need to be careful if we were to use extra light in our film as there is a point that the light becomes a shadow, and that this can cause shadows unnecessarily.

MORE EXAMPLES!!!!!!

I feel that our experiment was very successful, as we have covered the material well and have managed to show these in detail; this did mean that our video clip was largely longer, but I think that this is better as we can see the changes clearly. I also think we kept the subject still too, as this could have been confusing if he kept moving around, and wouldn't have shown as clear the changes.

Above all, I think we all worked together well as a group and this shows in the quality of our experiment. We managed to stay calm and work as a team. This was down to the fact that we all had small roles, and this way we did not over step each other or get in the way of one another. This also meant that we were able to concentrate on our own section and were able to do these well.

On the other hand, we could have timed out experiment better so that it wasn't as long as it was, as it was quite long to watch, even though it shows well the experiment. We could have also worked quicker, as we did take some time setting up and getting organised. This is vital as we will not have long to film our project and need to practice these skills now.

 

In reflection of this experiment, we will be able to take learn what is needed in order to film make the shadows less or more on the face, or even behind the subject; this would be done with a brighter light directed onto either straight onto the subject or behind them. We have also found out how to make less shadows around the face, and to make them more flattering, this would be done by using a white sheet reflected onto the face.

Quality of Light

REPEAT the above for the other experiment to ensure you cover both "quality" and "direction".

Post 11: Advanced Production Skills Workshop One

Narrative Theory Reading.

From this piece of reading, I found many things to note down. For example; 

*Concerning narrative, it needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end, and these have to make sense to the audience and through out own experiences, we can understand these meanings.

*The conventions of a narrative include the genre, the character, the form and the time. 

Bartne's Code

This is like unravelling a piece of wool in that as we identify with the narrative codes, we are able to understand the meaning.

Structures

*Tvzetsh Tadorov talked about equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium. This is where the character starts off normally, equilibrium, then is faced with a problem, disequilibrium, and they work it out and have a new ending, new equilibrium. 

*Vladimir Propp talked about characters and actions

*Claude Levi-strauss talked about the conflict and oppositions with the character. 

I think these are definitely relivent for today, as they are the structures that make a film, and it is how everyone has grown up knowing how to recognise these; people do not like change in such a big way that they will not enjoy it. 

As an audience of course we have a say in the way we read the narrative, as we all read things differently, and as mentioned earlier, through our own experiences, we would interpret aspects differently than others. 

Post 10: Job Roles Research.

In preparation for our short film project, we need to have the knowledge and understanding of key job roles, so as a group we can decide what jobs will be designated to who. This too will help us to work together as a group, to get the best possible outcome we can achieve. We found these main job roles and departments from the Skill set website. I will briefly discuss what they involve.

http://www.skillset.org/film/jobs/direction/  This is the website we each got the information from.

Direction

Direction, or the Director has the main role and responsibility over the creative vision and style they have for the film; they know how they want the film to look, so they should be the ones overlooking the film, to achieve their ideas. They have a few supporters to help, and these include a number of assistant directors and their role is to ensure that the director's ambition is achieved throughout the filming process. The skills included in this role would include organisation, time management and logical skills in order to keep everything in line throughout this period. Another role under this title would be Script Supervisor. This person's role would be to check the continuity and edit ability of each scene, as thee director will be concentrating on many other aspects of the film. The smallest role under this, is the runner; here the person's job is to carry out a wide range of general support duties, which basically means making sure everyone else is happy, and carrying out small jobs which don't need a massive degree in.

This job role would be best suited to the script writer, as they know the script better than anyone else, and know how they want the film to look like, what messages to put across and the tone of the film. They would have to sit down with each of the other roles in the group, in order to help them understand how they want to film to look like.

Camera

Camera work can be very informative when creating cinematography, as it can show many different things; creating something beautiful, can show the audience more about a character or a location. This can sometimes be more informative than dialogue, therefore the camera is very important. The director of photography (DoP) can choose the shot composition, camera movement and the lighting and shading in such a way that together they can create a unique style signature for a film. This role involves a lot of thought, preparation and hard work, as even moving and operating the camera can be tricky, especially when they have to concentrate too on whats happening on the screen and ways to enhance or detract this. They also have to work with extreme care while on set, as the equipment is very expensive and delicate; therefore only highly trained and skilled persons would operate these on a film set.  

Here, this role has some flexibility when composing the shots in the scenes, as they know what camera angles and shots work and what don't, or they could put their input as to how they think the scene would be portrayed better using different style camera work, which can differ from what the director originally wanted.

Lighting

The lighting too is another key element in the film crew. The use of lighting can create different atmospheres, tones and meanings towards a certain aspect or character; getting this wrong could send out a wrong message or meaning. It can also make the actors look right for the individual role they are playing. There is also the added though as to whether artificial lighting would be needed in order to create these effects, and how they will be placed. They take into account natural lighting too, which can either help or interfere what they are doing.

This job has a constant role, as they have to make sure that the lighting is the way the producer wants throughput the film, and that the emotion desired is achieved. They too need to make sure the tone of the atmosphere the director wanted is created through out the production, checking that there is also no 'hiccups' in this department.

Production Sound

There are many roles included in 'Sound Production', including production sound mixers, boom operators, sound assistants and sound trainees. There is such an emphasis on sound, as much of the story and emotion form the script is told through the sound and from the dialogue. This is a very complex job, as they deal with many situations such as unwanted noises, or the interruptions by the misplacing the microphones. This can be difficult, as the director usually wants the script read on set, and if all this unwanted noise creeps in, this makes it more complex to achieve the best possible outcome.

When in our production groups, Sound Production can be mixed with lighting, as they have similar roles; constantly checking that what the director wants is created, and that this flows with the film but also that there are no continuity errors while these elements are going on. In film, the art department takes care of the look of the sets. In order for the setting to be believable and convincing for the audience, a great deal of work has to be put into it, and that is why it is the department with the largest number of members. The reason being, that they need a largest range of artistic ability in order to be able to create the realistic feel to the set; imagination plays a big part in this, along side a great deal of work, as they do not always have a real life comparison to create their setting. The sets are rarely left by change for the film makers, and by creating the sets, they are able to make the best environment for their film.

Art Department

This role is vital; if this is done wrong, it may not be believable or convincing for the audience. They also need to take their initiative and their imagination in this role, in order to create what the producer wants.

From all of these roles, there are many overlays. For example, the director is linked to all of them. This is inevitable, as the director is the one that knows what he wants to get out of the film and how it will end up looking, so in line with each other role, they can discuss what would be the best suited way in order to carry this out. The director also has to let them know what his in vision of the film will be in order for them to create this. 

As mentioned before, Lighting and Art Department would be put together in our production groups, as there is a limited number of students in our group. They would help with the constant checking during the set of filming.

This is difficult to put them all into different groups and put some together, as there is usually a large amount of people on the set, and we only have to work with what we have, which is about four people. However, working together and sharing the roles, we can get the job done sufficiently. In order to do this, we have decided that the main four job roles that we need to fulfill would be the director, a camera man/woman, lighting with sound and the art department. We can split the roles between us, by all having a share in the work and sharing them evenly with each of us, so no one has more work than another person.

There can be many difficulties here, as we all have to have a share, and with all other work loads, this may be a challenge doing the work on time. Another problem could be if one of us is ill on a day of filming, or during coursework time period, as this can bring the rest of the group down temporarily. There is also the idea that there could be clashes in the job roles, in that two people may want the same role, or they may dislike the roles they have been given.

Post 9: Individual Script Feedback.

From the feedback, I had many comments that I did not think of previously about my script. From Becky Knapp who came and visited our lesson, friends and other teachers, some of the suggestions they gave me included;
*Changing the layout of my script slightly to make it seem more professional, like page numbers and the title page
*Alter the ending, as it seemed too odd to be that far in the future
*possibly have the main character talk back to her father when walking out of the house
*Include more scenes that show the main character more of a bully


Taking these on board, I re-drafted my script and this is my third version. This has helped me as other people have seen flaws in my script that I did not notice, so this has inevitably improved my script.

Post 3a: Target Progress.

In June, I had set myself five S.M.A.R.T targets including keeping on track with my blogger and it's organisation skills and improve my independent study areas. It has now been four months later, and I shall review how I have done since I set these for myself.

Target 1) organisational skills
I feel that in the last four months, I have improved my organisational skills, as I have kept on top of most my work so far, and have kept this standard quite high compared to last year. I also mentioned deadlines in my targets, and I feel that all the work I have been set has been achieved mostly within the deadlines set, however most of our work has been in the form of independent study. I will try my best to keep this up throughout the year until the end, as this will help improve my work for the end of the year.

Target 2) improve technical language
As I found last year, my technical language was somewhat lacking, and this was mainly because I rushed all of my work, and tried to get it all down at the last minute. I feel that this time round, I have improved my language, as I have spent more time on my Blogger, and spent time choosing the right way to put sentences so that they are technical. This will inevitably help me in the exam, as I will show I have the right terminology and hopefully get more marks.

Target 3) Independent study
Last year in my Blogger, I did not have the will to do my own independent study, however as this year most of our work was done in the form of independent study, this has helped me to get the motivated to do my work. This has helped me as I know I may not have done so much, if I had to do this all by myself. I know I will carry on my personal study. This too will help towards the exam, as the better I do in this area, the more chance I have of getting a higher mark.

Target 4) Edit suite
I previously stated that I wanted to improve my skills when using the edit suites, however I cannot comment on this yet, as we haven't started working on the edit suites yet.

Target 5) Blogger. I feel that I have improved in my Blogger this year a lot more than last year, as I have pushed myself to do the work more than previously. I have also along side this improved in my layout of the blog with images and colours, and I will carry this on in the future. I also said that I would be able to help others with their Blogger's if they were in need of help, and this has happened this year, and I was relieved that I was able to help them. Again, this will help towards my final mark, so doing the best I can and as much as I can in this area will help with my final overall grade.

I think to help me achieve these targets to the best of my ability, I need to spend a lot more time on them, and completeing them as soon as possible, as this way I will be on top of what I have to do.

Post 8: Decisions & Revisions.

Initial Thoughts

When I first started thinking about creating a script, I knew that I wanted to do a thriller short film, as this is my favourite genre, and am familiar with the conventions of a thriller. While thinking about the setting, I decided to keep it around school, as this was the easiest and most accessible place to film. This then helped narrow down my main character, and the basic story line. My preliminary thoughts, included having the main character as a girl student at A level.

As I had chosen the genre thriller, I knew I had to play on the stereotypical story lines of a thriller. I came to the conclusion of using a 'dare' theme, which can be manipulated really easily into a thriller. However, after much deliberation, I changed my mind to this, as I couldn't make my mind up as to how to intertwine this together. My thoughts included:

*A few friends playing dares at the back of a classroom, and being dared to do various things, and stemming from this the dares could include

          - going into an abandoned room in the school

          - going into an abandon shed just outside of school

          - deliberately annoying the teacher to get them sent up to t he head office

*Friends playing dares at break time 

*The main character daring herself to do something she wouldn't

I also came up with the idea that a teacher would ask the main character to get some more books or another element, and after refusing a few times, she is forced to, but on her journey she has vivid flash backs to a previous event that no one knows about, as this could play on the thriller theme well.

However after trying to narrow an idea down, I re evaluated the genre of thriller to try and get ideas. That was when I came up with the idea about a girl walking home. My thoughts on this included:

*Walking home when it was dark maybe

*Being tormented on the way home by someone of something

          - name calling

          - laughing

          - things thrown at her

*Taking a trek home through the woods; this was because there was a woodland area near our school, which could be easily accessible, and fits into the theme of a thriller.

However, when I pitched this idea to my classmates and teachers, it became clear to me that this was a little bit too stereotypical. Some of the comments that I received included things like it felt too studenty, and there wasn't much of a story line. So, re-evaluating my ideas I came up with a similar idea, but changed the setting a a little bit about the character. I came up with:

*The girl being a bully

*She is the one being bullied on the way home, as this isn't expected

*The same similar tormented techniques as mentioned earlier

*Walking to school while this was happening

*Changing the setting to something more realistic surrounding such as a street, as this will not create too much predictability

After these changes I have made to my story, I feel much more confident that I can make this short film much better.

Basic plot line:
Lucienanne is known for being a bully at her school. But she has a hard home life. Regular arguments with her father occure before Lucieanne makes her way to school in upset and anger as usual. However, something or someone torments her frequently on that journey. Names being called, laughing and other such things freak her out. She has no idea who these people are or what they are, but she knows theres someone there as this has happened for some time now. It isn't for a while until you find out that it was the victims she regularly picks on at her school have done this in order to get their own back.

Research
I did lots of research in order to find out information that could either help or rule out some ideas about my character. These are some of the websites that I found informative, and that would help in my short film.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:83i-WWPTYSoJ:www.athealth.com/consumer/disorders/aggressivegirls.html+girls+aggressive+bullying&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
From this website, it was talking about the idea of girls being just as, if not more aggressive than boys. "The patterns of aggression in girls are different than in boys." So, I will have to make sure that I do not use all the typical ways of bullying that I am used to, as they are clearly different from what I am used to.

I found this really interesting website in which peers would give advise on how to get back at people who have bullied them, which I found really shocking.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080522201744AAP98Vq
There was some disturbing answers such as, "From the first bad look the person gives you or if he does anything that annoys you, fight back and show him that you are not someone to F*ck with" and "grab a baseball bat and take out his kneecap." These online sugesstions can make the idea of my story line more likely and realistic.

This website gave me family and genetic reasons that could affect the bahaviour of a person, if they were an only child; http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/eischens2.html 
"Because only children lack siblings, they lose the immediate availability of others near their own age with whom to interact socially." This therefore could be another factor that can realistically affect a students behaviour towards others.

http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/open/parent/ra3.cfm
Within this website, there was many factors that would help me to understand why a bully would bully other people. "Perpetrators might be driven by jealousy, need for attention, anger, and fear of (or need for) competition." Here, if my character was an only child, with a broken home environment, she would need a way to get attention, and this could be how she becomes a bully.

There have been psychological researches which include the social learning theory; this is where the child learns through observation and modelling, and they will copy this behaviour themselves. This was conducted by Albert Bandura and he also looked at classical and oparrent conditioning. These are where if the behaviour is rewarded, then it will be carried on, and if the behaviour is punished, then the child will learn not to do that again. This could fit in with my character, as she could have been badly behavied and not punished for it, therefore she has grown up thinking that its okay to behave like that. 

There is another biological reason for a child's behaviour, and this is because of a mutation of the MAOA gene. If both parents have this gene then it will be more likely that the child will have this gene and become more agressive.

http://uk.askmen.com/celebs/entertainment-news/winona-ryder/winona-bully-revenge.html
This website shows a newspaper artitle about a woman who was bullied herself while at school, and since then she became famous, refused to give an autagrapgh and said "you remember me? Remember in seventh grade you beat up that kid?...That was me. Go f*** yourself." This may not have been the most aggressive reaction, but this shows that bullying stays with you, and they will get their own back, even if it is minor.

Character Profile
Lucieanne, an only child, is a seventeen year old student, still attending school and is in year 12. She studies English, Psychology and graphics. She lives at home with he father, but they do not get along as he is a lazy man who hasn't got a job and has a short temper. They argue frequently and this is obvious that it has affected Lucieanne. Her mother is not in the equation, but unsure as to why. Her attitude towards life is quite laid back with a slight lack of esteem to push herself to do well. She has a reputation around her school to be misbehaved, and more often than not is in trouble.

While collecting the information for my character, there was some problems that I came across. I wanted her to have a broken home, as this can be easily shown on screen, and people can make the connection between misbehaviour and problems at home. I thought I would take the mother out of the equation, as this can emphasise the point even more, but I didn't want to make a bigger deal out of this then necessary, as I cant portray enough information in the amount of time that I had to get this message across. Also, if I leave this piece of information out, it makes the audience intrigued as they do not know.

Another element that I had trouble with, was what subjects to give her to do, as initially I had her doing BTECs and health and social care, and these subjects are too stereotypical for a misbehaved student. I also wanted to give her some intelligence, as otherwise the film would be too dark. But, I had to be careful here, as in reality, a student like this wouldn't be allowed to stay on the course or even in school if they were that badly behaved.

The final factor that I came across was the name. I didn't want to give her such a stereotypical name that people will work out straight away that she was a bully. This is why I liked the name Lucieanne, as it seems like a nice innocent name, and can throw the audience off if they see a different personality to the name, which is a common theme in my film.

Post 7: Creating My Own Script.

Our task for the start of the lesson was to take it in turns to relate what happened in our evening the day before, in one minute. I found this task a bit silly at first, but it all made sense at the end. After we had all contributed to this, we all agreed that this was quite difficult to do, as we estimated the time to speak much less than it was, and ended up running out of things to say. This showed us that when we are creating our scripts, it may not be as long as we think. But this task also showed us that we all chose different pieces of information to tell, and what to keep back. For example, none of us in the class shared how we got home from school, just that we came home from school, also, none of us claimed what we had eaten, just that we had eaten. This opened our eyes as we leave out small pieces of information which we view as insignificant, as we already know it, but others do not. We have discussed that when writing our script, we could assume that people would know what we are talking about, and we need to be careful on this subject.This is also vital in our script, as we do not want to leave any piece of information that will help our script. Overall, this task helped me to understand a few lessons in script writing that I hadn't considered before.


Signs

'Signs' was a short film that we watched as a class, and discussed what made this a good film. Some of the points that we came up with about this short included:

* The narrative of the story wasn't too complicated; it was basic, but told effectively. As there was no dialogue included in the short film too, this made it especially more important to establish the character and the story, as it was not told in the typical way. This was done by character movement, and further on in the story, words. From this, I need to take care when telling the narrative, as if I do not portray the message that i want, this will confuse the audience. Also from this short film, I can also consider how much dialogue I really need, as it can be done without.

This was one of the ways this character communicated with another employee. This is a good way to tell the narrative, as there wasn't any dialogue, yet it was still giving information to the viewer.

* The character in the short film was easily recognisable by his characteristics, and we could all relate to this character. Even in the first forty seconds, we could establish that this character was lonely, lost, needy and scared. This was through the camera angles, and also a hand held camera, as these helped portray our view of this character, from the outside. This is important to think about, as we need to base our characters on stereotypes, as this helps the audience to understand the character easily and quickly in our short film.

From this high angle, you can clearly see he is on his own, and by his facial expressions of looking down, this signifies how he is feeling. The high angle also gives him a lower status than the viewer and others in the shot. Also, this is emphasised by everyone else around him showing contentment, and this makes his loneliness look larger than normal.

Here, this lower angle shot shows how small his character is, compared to everything around him, the big city, large bench, and this shows that he is alone in a large city. Here the scenery overpowers his character, which draws the attention not onto him, but the setting. This is a good example of how I can create a similar feel to the setting to create emotion.

* Reflecting on this short film, we could easily work out the character's want, need and obligation; his want was a job, his need was to be loved, and his obligation was to live up to his expectations from his parents. This however was only the class average of what we thought they could have been, and there was probably more ideas around each of those areas. I therefore need to establish what my character's want, need and obligation is before I start, as this will help me build up the character and also this will help me to put the messages across easier.

While watching this short film, we kept stopping at key parts in the narrative, and discussed what we thought would happen next.

This was one of the points where we stopped and had a discussion about what we thought would happen next. We shared many ideas, such as the main character becoming depressed or he would go ballistic. This little activity showed us that we need our short films to have twists that people wont see coming, as this will keep them interested in our short film. 

We also discussed what sources would help for a dramatic or documentary project. We came up with many examples such as:

*Watching that genre of film or short film

*Personal imagination, experiences or fantasies 

*Books or adaptations of them

*News stories

*Dreams or nightmares

*Television programmes

*Family or friends

*Urban legends, myths or stories

*Social networking sights

*The environment around us or places

*Social class

*Social issues

*Real life events

*Religion

*Magazine articles

*Memories

*Historical events

*A specific character

*An image

Although these are elements for documentaries or dramatic films, they can also help in other genres, as they can all be used as inspiration for each of them.

There are eight key points we need to think about before writing our scripts, and these will help us to perfect our scripts. These will also help us to narrow down our narrative and to make sure we understand our story in every detail.

The first thing you need to establish is the main charatcer. There should only be one main character, as there isn't enough time to have more than one main character. This could involve things like their age, what their personality is like, how they talk and what they look like.

The character's world is also important, as this can have an effect on their personality, and this can also be used in the narrative. This could involve how they perceive the world, or what is a big part in their life.

Within your narrative, the character has to face a problem, as this is what makes the story interesting. This can be either external like a person physically stopping them from carrying on, or an internal problem, like the character being too shy to talk to someone they like. This part is the main part of the narrative, as it's what makes the story interesting.

The character's want is what they drive to do and what they really want from life. This can be for example, to be loved or to have attention. This becomes obvious in the story.

The character's need is basically what they need to do. For example, an adult would need to go to work, and a teenager would need to go to school or a parent would need to look after their child; just like their role.

Obligation means to carry out one's duty or custom in certain aspects in life. This can also have an impact on the story, as this can get in the way of the character needing to do something etc.

Within the story, there has to be a turning point which is the building up towards the main plot. This is important as it starts wetting the appetite of the audience and keeps them interested and wanting to carry on watching the film.

This is the part in the story where the character overcomes a problem or the first turning point. This would usually come at the end of the story and creates a new equilibrium for the character, and the audience will feel relief for the character.

All these points will help to ensure that our story makes sense and has all the elements needed to create a successful short film.