Preliminary Task Film - Evaluation

This is the final product of our preliminary task.



I believe the use of synchronous sound worked perfectly as the music stopped the moment Kenya took out the headphones from her ears, to show the sound was also diegetic and Kenya was listening to the song Kenya was listening to.

The use of match-on-action worked well, it shows how Kenya moves through two scenes, however I think the walk through the corridor to the door was too long, but I wanted to show how Kenya moves from the corridor to the room to meet Tanisha.

The transition from Kenya entering the room to the two shot of Tanisha and Kenya sitting across the table, however the background noise of the fan, distorts the voices, also the voices of Tanisha and Kenya are at a low volume, which in hindsight, we should of tested how the recording would sound on the camera or used a boom mike.

When using the over-the-shoulder shot, I think it failed because of the height difference the eye-lines didn't seem to match, in effect breaking the continuity of the opening.

The close-up at the end of the opening, didn't work as well as we hoped due to Tanisha's acting skills, but I still believe the music helped to communicate there was something dramatic and personal between Kenya and Tanisha.

Explanation of the 180 degree rule

This rule is usually applied when showing a conversation between two characters.

Once you establish the positions of two characters in a scene, for instance; if two characters are having a conversation at a table and say if the male is on the right and the female is on the left,  you have now established the 180 degree rule.

Here we can clearly see the woman is positioned on the right and the man is positioned on the left, so once the director cuts to an over-the-shoulder shot or a shot from the perspective of the character, and returns to the two-shot we expect to see the woman on the right and the man on the left of our screen.

As you can see from this over head shot above, the camera can only shoot from this side of the line, for the scene to adhere to the 180 degree rule.

Breaking the 180 degree rule

Now as you can see the director has placed two cameras either side of our imaginary line, violating the 180 degree rule as you will in the next few screenshots the effect of violating the 180 degree rule has on the consistency of storytelling.

Since the 180 degree rule has been broken both actors are facing the same direction breaking the continuity of the film, another downfall of violating the 180 degree rule is that the actors' eye lines  won't match, disorientating the audience.

Crossing the 180 degree line, not the 180 degree rule

For a director to cross the line and still remain in the perimeters if the 180 degree rule, the director must shoot the moment and use the clip in the edit where the camera crosses the 180 degree line to maintain continuity.

The Clues of Storytelling

I found this clip by Andrew Stanton on a website called www.ted.com

I thought it might be useful and utilise it for the group film opening. The clip is centred on story telling. Stanton makes the point that the audience "wants to work for their meal", meaning, the audience wants to deduce and become a detective for the film.

The clip also stresses the importance of the writers "liking" their characters and the whole journey a characters, meaning there must be a change from the starting point and the ending point.

Even in the opening sequence, if Fatima, Tanisha, Indiya and I are able to to start a story where the opening scene presents enigma codes as to what the films about or relate ourselves with the audience. To communicate with them.







 

Introduction to the Brief

Today we had an introduction to the brief of our main coursework task. We went through what our coursework entails.

Main Coursework Task: Create a title and opening sequence for an upcoming fictional film. The film must not last longer than two minutes.

Since hearing the news, my imagination has been running wild. But, despite my eagerness, I am curious to find out the key features of an opening sequence and how to bring my thoughts onto screen. I have to control myself and think realistically and understand the restrictions I face; such as budgetary restrictions.

I'm watching films and studying certain techniques to incorporate in my opening sequence, problem is, I don't know which genre I want to film. I essentially have no start, no beginning. 
I need actors as well, professional actors. 

Anyway...

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we had to create a scene for a fictional film that lasts for a maximum of two minutes.  We had to follow a set of requirements that the film must conform to: 

• The film must have Shot, reverse Shot.
• A minimum of five lines of dialogue.
• Must include Match on action.
• A character must walk through the door, sit down at a table and a conversation to ensue.
• Must abide by the 180 degree rule.
• Must last no longer than two minutes.

The Break Up Scene

Title Worksheet Analysis - Opening Sequence

Title Sequence Work Sheet

In this lesson, Mujo and I took a child's bedtime story (Tidy up, Ted) and adapted the story into a screenplay.
Tidy up