Author: Mr G

Teacher
Posted on in Film Portfolio

Horror Movie Brief

This is the brief for your film sequence.

‘A short (2-3 minute) suspense sequence from a ghost story.’

Your creative intentions should be clearly identified at the outset and your reflections throughout and once complete will be based on them.

You must also reflect on your developing understanding of your production role(s).

You must always keep a record of the production process and record evidence of your learning throughout (at least once a week).

The creative intentions could be drawn from the list below. You should identify 3-5 initially and we will modify them later as your production role become clear.

You may choose others or modify these to fit your production role.

  • Create a sense of…mystery, suspense, intrigue, fear… in a given place.
  • Suggest a monstrous character or presence.
  • Introduce a tense, frightened, naïve… victim.
  • Build a sequence to a shocking/scary crescendo.
  • Use specific cinematography techniques from German Expressionist film.
  • Use montage editing to develop a sense of place and/or compress time.
  • Use continuity editing to make sense of a characters (inter)actions.
  • Design costume and props and dress the set to create a sense of….abandonment, corruption, decay, threat…

Your creative intentions may depend upon your production roles. You will be working in pairs and will be required to adopt at least one production role from each of the three main stages of production:

Pre-production (planning):
  • Screenwriter
  • Director (Storyboarding)
  • Production designer
Production (filming):
  • Cinematographer (& Director)
  • Sound recording (& Director)
Post production (editing):
  • Vision editor
  • Sound editor
    • Foley sound artist
    • Music composer
Task:

Define each of these role in terms of the tasks they will be required to undertake during that particular stage of production.

  • Editor
  • Director
  • Cinematographer
  • Sound Designer
  • Screenwriter

Complete a slide on this presentation,

  • Defines the production role in one sentence
  • Lists the jobs that role includes

Use references in the notes on the slide to keep a record of your inquiry sources.

Dates & Deadlines
  • Filming at The Mirus Battery: 17th November
  • Final Deadline for Pages & Reel: 22nd December
Posted on in Director

Directing 101

Task

Direct a scene using blocking, framing and notes to actors to communicate two or three different relationships / atmospheres

The Scene

Click here

Notes

You may reuse the opening shots/sequence of Y working and X entering the room, but must direct and block the reaction/actions of Y in different ways.

You should block the actors in distinct ways each time, frame the shots to communicate the characters; reactions differently and also give the clear direction on how to use body language and facial expression to communicate their feelings.

Inquiry

Task:

Watch one of the four videos below and be prepared to report back on your findings. These findings should be actionable items of advice for you as director.

You should watch the remaining three for independent study.

Class Notes

Use this slideshow to make notes on your allocated resource.

Blocking and Subtext (Implied Meaning)

How does blocking change a scene? If you were director how would you block the movement of the actors / camera?

Here is a Masterclass in Blocking

Giving notes to actors

An Acting Masterclass

Task

Complete the inquiry section of your portfolio page

Action (Pre Production)

Working in Pairs

Draw a simple storyboard of your scene, remember the opening 5-6 shots can be repeated.

Draw a new storyboard, titled for each of the different emotions / tones you want to achieve, these should be no more than 6 shots each.

In each iteration of the storyboard you should be clear about the feel/emotion you want to achieve and also have considered the blocking / acting and framing, which should be distinct for each of your three different versions of the scene

Action (Production)

Working with another pair of students you have one lesson to direct the scene in the three different ways in which you envisaged the scene.

Reflection

Using screenshots from your video (min 30 seconds) you should consider how far you created 2 or 3 different emotional responses, reflect on your blocking, actors’ performances and the framing.

  • What went well?
  • Even better if…?

 

Posted on in Video Essay

Essay to Video Essay

Use this document to drop in sections from your script and screenshots from key scenes + time codes. You must observe the word count limit and based on your own speech speed test you may need to amend this down.

THE MAXIMUM DURATION IS 10 MINUTES. THE EXAMINER WILL STOP LISTENING AFTER THAT TIME!

Posted on in Cinematographer

Advanced Cinematography

The creative intention for the week

‘To develop my cinematography skills and practice advanced techniques which can be used for expressive meaning in film.’

Composition in Storytelling

Session 1 – Filming with Canon DSLR cameras

Menu & Settings

  • Setting the White Balance
  • Grid display
    • rule of thirds / composition
  • Auto and Manual Focus
  • Recording Mode – (movie rec size)
    • 50 fps, 1280×720 (frames per second / resolution)
  • ISO (light sensitivity)
    • darker environment – higher light sensitivity & ISO number
    • lighter environment – lower light sensitivity & ISO number
  • Aperture (quantity of light coming into the lens)
    • low number (eg F1.8 = larger amount of light let in = shallow depth of field)
    • high number (eg F8 = less light let in = deeper focus) 

Session 2 & 3 – Play Time

Choose a minimum of  four techniques to research and practice this week. Two from each list:

List 1
  • Depth of Field & Pulling Focus
  • The Trombone Shot
  • Bokeh
List 2
  • The Rule of Thirds
  • Frames within the Frame
  • Symmetry & Leading Lines
  • High Contrast Lighting (Low Key)
  • The Quadrant System

You will need a clear example of what you’re trying to achieve and also a tutorial video or web page on how to achieve it practically.

For each technique you should aim for either a shot of about 10-15 seconds or two to three different shorter examples of the same technique being used in different ways.

Our Class Research on Composition in Film

Session 4 The Edit (no less than 30 seconds)

  • Use WeVideo to edit.
  • Upload your footage
  • Create a montage of cinematography techniques,
  • Name the kit / technique in a caption at the start.
  • At the end use a caption to suggest a potential meaning or impact of the technique on the audience

Reflective Journal

Inquiry

A statement on the significance of composition in creating expressive meaning and how this can contribute to meaning / ideas.

A summary of two of the four techniques you have used, how they can be used to express meaning. How are these achieved in practical terms?

Take a copy of this slideshow template.

Action

A description of how you used the camera during filming in order to achieve the effects you selected in the edit.

Reflection

Screenshots of your various (two) experiments with composition. This will have been exported from WeVideo and downloaded to your drive (directly). The videos should include captions of the technique that you employed.

A reflection on how you shots evoke meaning with a commentary on how this can be used effectively in future projects (your horror film)

Posted on in Help & Information

Cinema Stories

In partnership with the Psychology and Sociology department we are pleased to announce the first in the series of Cinema Stories.

We will be screening a notable film and will then hold a 30 minute Q&A discussion with a panel of experts on film and on the issues and topics explored in the movie.

The first event is scheduled for 5th October 7.00 – 10.00 and held at Candie Garden Museum.

The Film will be the documentary master piece by Asif Kapadia; AMY.

To book your place at this event, please click here.

Posted on in Video Essay

A Great Video Essay

The Assessment Criteria

Lessons from the Screenplay

What is so great about it?
  • Allows the movie to ‘talk’.
  • Treats each movie in the same way.
    • Is structure to allow comparison
  • Using captions to emphasis key ideas.
    • Reuses those captions in order clarify
  • Is clearly spoken – about 2500 words for 15 minutes!
  • Uses film language

Previous Student’s Work

Posted on in Contexts, Genre, Narrative, Representation

Macro Analysis Refresher

There are three key areas to any textual analysis essay:

  • Micro Features Analysis (within your chosen 5 minute sequence)
  • Macro Features Analysis (within the whole film)
  • Cultural Context Analysis (the wider significance surrounding the film / content)

We have four lessons to review what we already know and fill any gaps in your understanding.

Essential Macro Features
  • Genre
  • Narrative
  • Representation
  • Context
The Feynman Technique

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Resources

The class will be working in two halves and each of those halves will have one of the terms to define and apply. Follow this link to the slideshow that you will be working on.

Task 1
  • Using the Feynman Technique to define what is meant by one of these terms and how they can be used to analyse a film.
  • Define and explain the concept simply in one slide of your shared slideshow.
    • You should use the blog to help you.
Task 2
  • In pairs or threes discuss one of these ideas in relation to one of the films we have studied last year.
Posted on in Textual Analysis

Micro Analysis Refresher

So, let’s get back down to the micro…

This is a process that you should be familiar with:

  1. Identify specific examples of production techniques:
    • Cinematography
    • Editing
    • Sound
    • Mise-en-scene
      • These examples must be named with a technical term
  2. Analyse the impact that technique, in combination with others, on the audience?
    • How do ‘we’ read the text?
Previous blog posts that contain most of the terms your need:
Cinematography
Sound Design
Production Design
Editing

TASK

In small groups create a spider diagram for one of the four micro areas, which you will share with and present to the whole class.

Practice

Identify some of the micro features within your category within this sequence: