Holiday

I'm going to my Nan's for a few weeks, and I'm going to have rehearsals for We Will Rock You (School's version) so I'm probably not going to be writing many posts until after those (I have no Internet at my Nan's house). I'm writing bits on paper here and there that I'll type up, and saving videos in my YouTube favourites to analyse. One good thing is the different scenery opportunities I'll get from my Nan's (in Somerset). I'm going to film various scenes, in a kind of non-commital way, so I can later edit the contrast, filter and sound to create any desired effect (within reason!) I'm going to use my time to practice and plan out my projects.
Back in a few weeks!

Short Film: Prelim Textual Analysis

Here is mine and Sarah's final prelim (I will update with the not-ruined version!) :

We began this idea as a simple "Day In The Life" of an average student. However after covering lessons, friends, common room, and the shop; we ran out of ideas. So we decided to go crazy and have some fun and made our student into a teacher poisoner! After having a lot of fun filming those sections, we thought it could do with a bit of depth rather than mindless killing for the sake of a laugh, so we made Amanda (the student, played by me) into an unfortunate schizophrenic. We aimed to shock the audience with the initial switch from normal to mental, then to confuse and conflict them from their laughter at the either highly comical, or intensely shocking deaths (depending on outlook, and reaction to the music), straight into a sad scene designed to create sympathy for her.

Camerawork: We tried to use a variety of shots to create a visually dynamic experience for our audience (especially important as our film was 5mins30 over the minimum time!)

Sound: The sound was a very important part in creating atmosphere and expressing Amanda's emotions.

Mise-en-scene: We thought about which items to use as part of the mise-en-scene. We debated over the science lab coat, but in the end decided to go with it, as no matter how over the top it looked, we weren't sure everyone would follow the poisoning as well without it.

Editing: I had a lot of fun as the Editor alongside Sarah helping me choose transitions etc :)

tbc XD ...

Film Trailers: Conventions and Uses

Although I doubt I'll be choosing this as my final project, I have investigated some conventions of film trailers, and how they use them to persuade their audience to see the film:

• Titles - although the film title is generally revealed last, alongside the release date, once the audience has formed an opinion and (hopefully!) would want to know the name so they can go see it.
• Credits - all of the famous and rising stars in acting and producing/directing etc will be made apparent, whether through image or captions, to appeal directly to fans of those people. Generally the more well known names, the better the film will do.
• Voiceover - used to introduce the film, usually in a booming male show voice. Often used are generic phrases such as "The Greatest Horror Film...Of Our Time" (quoted from "The Woman In Black" trailer, which I will analyse)
• Montage - gives an idea of what the film will be like, showing the most exciting parts without completely giving away the storyline, will give an impression and a vague understanding with (hopefully!) increased expectation. Includes highlights to give an overview of the film.
• One-liners - to grab the audience with clever lines and funny scenes.
• Cliffhanger - leaves it at a tantalising end so the audience will feel the need to watch it just to see what happens.
• Music soundtracks - gives a film its own identity, creates atmosphere, often repeats theme music so the audience will remember and recognise it, in a hope to grab their attention to then go and see it.
• Editing - edited to fit each genre, lighting, contrast, music, volume, silence etc can all be very valuable tools in creating atmosphere.

Short Film: Ideas

During class, we came up with a list of ideas for a short film and where to get ideas from.

Here's the list:
In the lesson we listed some ideas for the short film task:

• Love - Cute/Old/Obsessive
• Comedy
• From a film you've seen
• Songs - Lyrics
• Kids
• Crime - Twist in the tale
• Death - Murder
• Sentimental
• Betrayal
• Poems - William Blake - Innocence vs Experience
• Shakespearean story/tale
• Rework a fairy tale - Canterbury Tales
• Old people
• Other stories/books - make it modern

We also thought of what problems would occur with doing a short film:

• Have to write a screenplay - one thats interesting
• Continuity issues - hair change/clothes changed/nails/makeup etc
• Time
• Deadlines
• Having too much in the film - too many camera angles/sound effects etc
• Planning
• Talent - actors ill/unwilling/lazy
• Organisation

Short Film: Finished

We have finished our short film. I am pleased with the outcome, however when I came to export it, it hasn't quite worked. The video itself is fine, but twice during it, there is a random sound of me talking to Sarah. Its only about a second long, but its enough to ruin the film and distract from the story. 

I went back to iMovie to find the sound file to delete it, but it isn't anywhere on the storyboard (I'll screenshot it). I don't recognise the actual clip, so I'm presuming its from one of the unused sections of film. It's definately not from the actual film; and no matter what format I exported it in, it wouldn't work without the extra sound. 

It's repeated in two parts of the film, but I can't get rid of it at this moment. I'm going to try screen recording, or if worst comes to the worst, literally record it on a camera from iMovie (where it works perfectly) and upload it seperately. But for now, here is the flawed version:

Music Video: "Cancer"

I have decided to do a music video for my project. I'll probably end up doing one of the others, (or maybe some more music videos) but the song I've had in mind for a while now is "Cancer" by My Chemical Romance. I know how I'm going to do each part, and I'll upload the rest of the storyboard once I've finished it.

As there isn't an existing music video for "Cancer" I thought I'd research unofficial videos (to see what the competition is like!) I found quite a few on YouTube, ranging from decent ones to the not-so-decent. There were also some Sims ones and various cartoon videos! Here's some of the ones I found:

1:

 

I like the way this one has been made, especially the beginning shots. I liked the proffesional quality, however I felt it lacked in storyline progression as it went on. I especially liked the focus on the words "diagnosed with cancer" I might try to incorporate something similar into my video.

2:



I thought

3:

This one

4:

No offense to the girl that made this, but I'm going to try and make mine quite a bit better, with decent lip sync and various other scenes.

5 (Sims) :

I found this quite interesting, not necessarily because of the relevance to my video, but because it shows that the interest for making music videos is out there. There are many of these Sims music videos on YouTube for all sorts of music!
 

A couple of these include certain things I'm intending on doing for mine. I'll put my storyboard into a slideshow or video, alongside clips from these videos to show what I'm planning.

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Short Film: Prelim Experiment

I am making a short film (about 1 minute long, if we can make it that short!) with my sister Sarah Tye. We are doing "A Day In The Life Of...Amanda Bellamy" - a fictional student played by myself. Sarah is the camerawoman and I am the editor. We both came up with the idea for our film, and help each other try to perfect each part of making the film.

I've noticed that it is a lot harder to make a short film, as there is so much less time to fit everything into! So we've tried to use certain shots, speed some of the footage up, and include as much as possible through shots and voiceovers.

I'll upload it when's its finished, at the moment I'm trying to incorporate one scene into another, faded in the corner of the shot.

Music Video: Literal Videos

We looked at some Literal Videos in the lesson. Although they are really quite funny, I don't think they'd be suitable for my project, as I would be using an already existing music video with a voiceover, which wouldn't be very challenging. I suppose I could create a video to be deliberately stupid, then add a voiceover, but I'd prefer to make a serious one first.
Here are some literal videos I found:

Aha - Take On Me (If you ask me, this one is utter genius!) :

Billy Idol - White Wedding:

James Blunt - You're Beautiful:

The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love: