British Film Institution Visit

On Tuesday my class took a trip to London, South bank to visit the BFI (British Film Institution). We were given useful information from Pete Fraser, the Chief Examiner for the OCR Media Studies A level, and did Q&A with Simon Frame (Vsx Supervisor, Molinare Ltd.) and Joe Cornish (Writer-director of 'Attack the Block').

Throughout Pete gave us handy information to enhance our coursework, here are some of my notes:

Key features in opening sequences:

• Genre
• Narrative (enigma)
• Character
• Atmosphere
• Setting

We were told to start general, then more specific, then make research which was focused and relevant.

After that we watched different opening sequences which were all completely different looking at the titles and key features.

One of the openings was 'Napoleon Dynamite' (click here to watch) a film which I have never seen before, however, after watching the opening sequence and looking for the key features I could identify what it was about. The titles of the opening are part of the shots (on food, cards, books etc) which I thought was really clever as gives us an insight into what the film is about very subtly. The only character we see is Napoleon Dynamite on one of the cards so he is easily identified as the main character. The music in the opening sequence is 'jolly' and country like and portrays an American setting. The books, stationary, canteen like food we see represent it is set in a school. And judging by the opening we can see it is most likely to be a comedy.

This lead us to learn a little about titles:

• The directors name must be last
• They are often throughout the opening sequence rather than at the end
• 'Starring' is not using in film openings but in trailers

The Team GB cycling coach, Dave Brailsford, said "It's important to understand the 'aggregation of marginal gains" which also applies to our coursework (lots of small things add up to get better marks).

We were given a list of the six most common opening sequences to avoid doing:

1. Saw- victim in shed
2. Scream- hooded stalker
3. Se7en
4. Lock, stock- gangsters
5. Waking up
6. Flashbacks and flash forwards

and common problems in opening sequences:

• Making it look like a trailer or short film
• Not enough titles
• Poor sound of lighting
• Poorly directed actors
• Making it confusing or complicated
• and doing one of the most common openings badly!

The sequence should be up to two minutes, 20 marks is awarded for research and planning, 60 marks for construction and 20 marks for evaluation.

Pete's main advice was to:

• Plan
• Learn from others
• Avoid the obvious
• Pay attention to detail
• Vary our blogs

Step 1: Take stock

• Build skills
• Build research
• Build planning
• give yourself enough time to shoot and edit
• Keep evident throughout the whole process

Step 2: Set up a blog

Step 3: Build up skills

Step 4: Investigate

Step 5: Brainstorm ideas

• Pitches
• Mood board treatment
• Feedback
• Be realistic

Step 6: Planning (the more planning= the less problems)

• Experiment
• Examples of shots, costume, props etc
• Storyboard (post it notes) 
• Logistic planning

Step 7: The shoot 

• People, places, props, costumes
• Rehearsing, directing
• Equipment/ jobs on day
• Keeping a record of process

Step 8: Editing

• Everyone have a go
• Screen grabs
• Audio and titles
• Foley (the art of putting sound in sync with movement)
• Rough cut deadline and peer feedback

The big picture before the fine detail

Step 9: Evaluation

Film Riot- Preparation and Analysis of 'Tell'

On Mr Buckmaster's blog (http://marlboroughmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/how-to-plan-film.html) I watched Film Riots: How to Plan a Movie Shoot! - Script Breakdowns, Schedules and Budgets and How to Storyboard & Schedule Your Film. These two clips showed me all the preparation they went to before filming there short film 'Tell'. They also link in with the work we are doing in class at the moment (preparing our preliminary task) and will help us when we start to prepare for our opening sequence.
Although the short film only had a very small budget of £1000 with very few of the film crew trained, in the end the preparation really paid off. 'Tell' was a really good effective short film. I definitely thought the camera movement/shots and sound were the most effective in the film (the camera shots and movement were so good, constantly making the audience feeling uneasy and the sound also kept building up tension and creating suspense throughout using both diagetic and non-diagetic sounds). Overall it has made me realise just how important preparation is to create an effective and low budget production.

Filming A Scene Using My 'Bullitt' Storyboard

In class on Thursday we attempted to film the shots in the 'Bullitt' car chase scene using just my storyboard (see previous post). We didn't focus on sound in this, just trying to position the shots correctly. The video of Katie's, Alex's, Dionne's and my attempt is to above (we accidentally cut out the first shot). As we didn't have a car to use we improvised with two chairs, a table and a bin and filmed clips where we found it impossible to shoot.

The first shot in the video is a medium eye level shot of the back of the 'goodies' head, who is driving chasing the car ahead. In this shot we had to think about the rule of thirds and think about the positioning of the objects. To the right is a screen grab of attempt and what it should of looked like. As you can see the angle of this shot is wrong, it appears to be more of a high angle shot. We should of lowered the tripod to make the shot eye level. We also did not think about the duration of this shot (it should have last approximately 3 seconds).

The next shot was of two people in another car (the 'baddies') driving. It was hard to get the positioning of both characters right in this shot as our actors were different sizes to those in the actual scene which I storyboarded from. However I think this shot worked a lot better than the last (see picture to right). We remembered to think about the duration and angle of the shot.

The next shot was hard to film because I had found it hard to draw on the storyboard, so wasn't an accurate representation of the shot. We got the angle of the shot right however the size and the duration of the shot were a little out.

In the next shot we just filmed the actual 'Bullitt' car chase clip as we didn't have a car available.

We then filmed another clip of the 'goody' driving and chasing the car ahead. although this was a better attempt than the first shot, the angle and positioning of the shot is wrong again (the top of my head is one show). To correct this the camera must of been set up lower and checked that the positioning of my head was the same as my storyboard. However, the duration of the shot was correct.

After that we again filmed the actual clip from the scene again, as it was another clip of a car.

The second to last shot was another shot of me (the 'goody') chasing the car ahead, except the angle was slightly different. Although we showed this angle and the duration of the shot was close, we again got the positioning of the shot wrong (too much of my head is on show).


The last shot is again of me but from the side. I have far too much space behind my back in this shot and above my head in this shot. The angle and duration, however, were good.




Filming the 'Bullitt' car chase scene using just my storyboard made me realise how important and helpful storyboarding is to help you get the right and accurate shot. They also save a lot of time as you know exactly what you are doing when you start filming.

Storyboarding

Webb Smith, Disney credited animator, created the first storyboard in the 1930's which ever since then has played a massive part of filming. Storyboards are a sequence of illustrations which often have details of duration, shot size, angle and transition underneath. They represent and help pre-visualise the shots planned for a scene and are similar to cartoon strips. They are one of the most important things to do before filming to give a good idea of what each shot should look like, however, then can be alternated if certain shots do not work or look effective when filming. 

I have attempted to story board the first 28 seconds of the car chase scene from 'Bullitt' (click here to watch) directed by Peter Yates. (Below)