Film Study - Directing

In the second film i have worked on i have been credited as the Director as well as the Storyboarder and even though i think i know what it is to be a good director i had a look at the wiki explanation to see if i could further my understanding of the techniques and processes a director has to use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_director

Unsurprisingly James Cameron who i have already researched falls in to most of the categories of what it takes to be a good film director. Being in a group of 4 people i also fall in to nearly all the good film director categories as i had to take on a lot of roles because of the small size of the group, like outlining a general plot line, controlling every aspect of the film, wrote it and produced it (storyboarded in my case).

Possibly the most famous director i know George Lucas also the first director i heard of (watched star wars when i was very young) is known for making good films (Star Wars) (Indiana Jones) as he also falls into the categories of Wrote and produced their own films, Control every aspect and demand that the cast and crew follow every direction precisely. He also falls into the Notable Film Directors category and has recieved awards like the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute and has been named among the 100 Greatest American by the Discovery Channel.

While researching what it is to be a good/bad director i came across an article from the website linked below which talks about if a movie can be good despite its director. From my experience of being a director in one film and almost entirely directing the other i have found one film stands out as good more than the other, this is not at all from the quality of the director but of the amount of directing done by that person, as a side not a film can not be good if the story is bad no matter how good the director may be. So i dont really know if a film can be good if the director is bad because i think the directing in our group has met the standards of what it takes to be a good director as mention above on the wiki link and also the films turned out good so that must reflect well on the director also.

http://www.getyourfilmfix.com/goodmoviebaddirector/

David Fincher made The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and contrary to what the Academy believed, that film is no where near the quality that we’ve come to expect and continue to see from Fincher.

Film Study - Dexter

I have recently watched a few episodes from the series Dexter and what particularly caught my eye was how well the scenes with flashbacks to his childhood look so good and give the impression of the past, there are a few scenes in this video which show flashbacks showing what i am talking about. I think in our groups first video it could have done with a little more work being done on the saturation and colour side of the scenes with the forest as it meant to be a fantasy world, maybe a little in the way of how the editors of Dexter have done their flashbacks.

The series also has a relation to our second film because in Dexter he constantly narrates his own life, a device i think really works in the show and which also gave me the idea of reading the poem we are working on over the top of the film we have recorded. We have been to the sound booth to record our voiceovers of the poem and put it all together in a rough finished piece, i think it worked really well and phil is going to continue editing until we are happy with the finished product.

THIS CLIP CONTAINS BLOOD AND VIOLENCE VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED



I have just realised as i listned to this clip with no sound on that it is in spanish or something. Without sound the visual effects and point of this study still makes sense just so you know.

Film Study - 300

While discussing the film module with a fellow student i thought about my key role in the group and how it could relate to films i have seen and enjoyed, 300 came up when thinking about storyboarding along with sin city, i will look at the storyboard style of the film and how techniques like it work for certain films.



After looking a little more into where the style of 300 came from, i realised just how much the makers of this film have stuck to the colour theme and style of the comic book. The film is entirely based on the comic book which is a 5 issue limited edition Dark Horse Comics series which was written and illustrated by Frank Miller (Sin city also) and which was painted by Lynn Varley. From looking at the comic book myself i can see that the film has stuck pretty rigidly to the story and style of the comic book shown here.

The contrast between the black of the shadows and the saturated light of the sky is a defining feature of the 300 series, and when watching the film and from looking at the box cover i personally right from the start had a different idea in my head of what the film might be like because i had never seen such a highly saturated stylised film before and expected not to like it as much as it turned out i did.

As shown again from other images in the comic book series the theme of black shadows and mild greens and yellows sticks.

From a storyboarders point of view a comic book series is always easier to realise because it is already done for you, a comic book is essentially a storyboard and even though there would be issues like camera positioning which a film may find tricky but a comic book will find easy all a storyboarder of a comic book has to do is re draw what is already done for them in the comic but with film camera angles being considered.

Film 2 the Storyboard

This is the storyboard i did for the second film, the idea was juggled around a little because each member of the group had different interpretations of the poem (Introduction Unnecessary) i thought it was about a rapper and his day/life and talking about himself with visual imagary but adam seemed to think it was about someone who came back from war amd who has post traumatic stress disorder. We or rather i decided to do something we would be able to manage with the upcoming deadline, Define Me sounded like a good poem to do since it could be shot locally and with some discussion we could all work together on post production which would be the main focus in our piece. This is the storyboard i put together with the idea of town generally not specific locations (on the film day we went all around town finding locations we like)

Since i did all of this storyboard on the computer, when we went out to film i had to knock together a simplified version to go by, it probably would have been better to print this contact sheet out but i will do that in the future. Here is the simpler version i did for the filming day, took 5 mins to do.

Group Film 1 - The Wonderer

This is the finished film we will be submitting for the Film Production module. Our film is named The Wonderer meaning it is about a person who is curious to their surroundings which works with the whole theme of the film well.

Here is the finished composition.



The more i watch this finished piece the more i find myself liking it as a film, i think we have done well and stretched ourselves more than we expected because of me and phil overlapping into the other roles in the team mainly phil taking on the filming and editing aspects of the project and i had a lot of input on the direction of the shots.

As a quick note i had the idea of making the contrast really high in the forest scenes, the finished film didnt end up using this idea but i thought it was a good one and got it from the film Hero, here is a short clip of what i mean. Skip to near the end for the best effect.



Overall i am happy with the finished piece, the only things i would change would be the tint or colour in the forest scenes, the sound effects would be out completely and the music would raise and lower at certain points a little better. The things i think work really well on the other hand is how well the story comes across without the use of a dumbed down simple storyline, how the transitions work in the piece, the makeup and shot locations are well done too.

Video Study - Green Wing

While our group was editing the second film together and deciding how to make the video last a little longer since we were short on clips i remembered the show Green Wing, the series is a comedy about hospital workers but there is a very unique camera style noticeable in the entire series mostly between shots where the camera will slow right down to capture the emotion and movement of the character then it will speed up and skip past less interesting positions, i was thinking this kind of camera work could improve our piece as a whole as ours at the moment only consists of our actor (chris) walking through town. I researched Green Wing for conformation on the camera style and found Wiki also mentions the style is very distinct, the only video i could find has a LOT of comedy value in it but the point i am making by adding this video is the camera style used as i am able to notice the speed ups and slow downs in the scene.

Animation Study: Ghost Whisperer

This is a little on how the animation and effects were done in a ghost whisperer episode - Evolution of an avatar. I found this interesting because it is an inside look in to how a small scale company has taken on a larger project than themselves and managed to achieve it. The video discusses how the episode was filmed on green screens, how many people were needed to achieve the set goal, and the problems and obstacles the team had to overcome. It was nice to see what things a crew should and shouldnt do when using green screen and animation because i will certainly be using them more in the future and would like to know what mistakes to avoid making myself.



The clip is pretty long but watched all the way through is worth it for anybody thinking of using green screen for the first time.

Behind the scenes: Avatar Film Study

I came across some more behind the scenes footage of my favorite animation film Avatar, again i will mention i have done two posts about the behind the scenes of Avatar as it is both animation and film and is relevant to both modules.

This video is more directed at the filming side of the film and addresses the obstacles and problems the crew had to overcome to achieve the things they wanted, one of the main things i noticed which relates to my own experience of being in a film crew is that, the actor and the crew must have a very clear picture of what they are creating, the story they are telling, the message they want to get across, the idea of the film as a whole. This is where our team broke down on the second film, i think only i really knew what i wanted the story to be about and now looking back on the filming day it really makes a difference if everyone as opposed to only one person out of 4 knows what to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6JXUoWeZ7Q

Behind the scenes: Avatar Animation Study

I came across some behind the scenes footage of my favorite animation film Avatar, i have done two posts about the behind the scenes of Avatar as it is both animation and film and is relevant to both modules. The thing that impressed me the most animation wise in this short clip is the amount of thought that goes behind every little detail and aspect of the film, the amount of artists and world class concept designers that were brought into the film is another impressive element. The amount of green screen used in modern films still makes me surprised when i actually see behind the scenes and how many shots are done with green everywhere, it shows how much animation has come along and how it must be getting easier to do at least a little bit. The little details like the animals of pandora having six legs instead of four is another aspect that particularly interested me because it would have been so much easier to just say hey lets go with four legs on the horse like animals because people already know how to model and structure horses but instead they went for six legs which has probably never been made before and will prove to be a much more difficult task to do especially the run cycles which is pretty much all the camera shots will be catching of the six legged horses (starting to animate my own models i am beginning to understand just how hard this will have been for the animators) but these are the little things which take a lot of effort but which round off the film as a whole and make it the experience that it is.

Film 2 Idea

So we have just been out filming our second film in Leeds city centre and although we got a lot done i think the crew was getting very tired and it was kind of cold so we got as much done as we could and called it there. I think we may have more to do on the filming side of the project yet but we still have a few days to sort it all out. I got home and was thinking about how we could make the voiceover of the entire piece more interesting, then i thought about some adverts where each word in a sentance is being said by a different person which in my head gives the impression of a lot of opinions thinking the same thing at once. This may work for our piece and i will be passing the idea on to the other guys when we meet up. We did not end up going with that idea but this idea as a whole led to the use of a voiceover of the footage so it was a good idea to explore.

I can not find ANYTHING in video form which even slightly relates to what i mean...

Essay Titles: How important are film and game opening title sequences?

In the seminar with Gary Barker today we were told to group up into groups with people that are chosing the same essay title to write about, i discusses with Tom, Holly and Jess the importance of title sequiences in films like Starwars, Saving private ryan and Pulp fiction, we decided that even though title sequences in films are not entirely essential they are useful and can contribute to the film as an overall composition.

We also chose the title sequences for some games like that of Battlefield 3, Skrim (obviously), World of Warcraft and Gears of war. Gears 3 we agreed that the opening sequence was mainly to explain what the audience might have missed but it is also to set the mood of the third installment of the game, in the sequence it is trying to make the viewer feel like there is no hope and no chance, a theme that has been carried throughout the series, which is one of the reasons why the game is so successful.

Here is the sequence to get a feel of what i am writing.

Also a film which is a really good example of why title sequences are important in films is 'Shooter' the film is about a military soldier who is part of a sniper team sent in as part of a mission escorting troops across a border, the film is an in depth conspiracy style theme with a lot more to think about than the fact that the main character is a sniper but, the reason the opening sequence i think goes so well with the overall theme of the film is that, when the film starts the camera is a landscape shot travelling across valleys and forests, rivers and open land, the credits go on for about 2 minutes and this style of an opening is not so uncommon so there is no reason for the viewer to suspect anything, the camera eventually lowers to a cliff top and keeps on zooming in until the viewer realises they are looking at two snipers camouflaged in the grass watching the entire landscape the camera has just panned across. This opening in my opinion work really well because it emphasises the fact that they are completely hidden and unnoticeable to anyone they may be looking at just like they were to the viewer when the camera started off. This makes the sniper feel work really well and adds to the film as a whole.

(No videos uploaded with the actual landscape panning shot, this starts just as the viewer realises there are 2 snipers on the cliffside) 

This is why i think if done correctly an introduction to a film can be very interesting and thought provoking to watch where as if not used at all (may have its advantages in certain cases) or done wrong then can take away from or damage a film.

Film Study - David Guetta Music Video

This song was linked to me by a friend who just thought it was good, i thought it was really good not because of the music but because of the way the music video is done as i thought about it a little more in depth as i am currently on a film module. In the video you as the viewer dont really understand what it is about until the very end when it all clicks in your head what is happening, which i think is a good device especially when used in short sequences like this one. It turns out the child (from the film super 8 Ryan Lee, another film with supernatural themes) has super powers in a way and uses them defensively when he is trapped.

This kind of thing is what i imagined our final piece to be like in a way, ours lacks the camera shots composition and lighting in this video but overall the stories are similar in the way the viewer only realises what was happening in the video until the very end which i think we have achieved and am happy about. But overall this is the kind of level i want to be on in the near future and think it is a good study to show what i think i am capable of as well as looking at what else is out there at the moment.

Lecture - Skimreading

Skim reading is a useful skill when it comes to research as it speeds things up and helps us keep track of what is the point in an ammount of text weather you are the reader or the writer, we had to evaluate a portion of text about the BBCs website game spooks, i think i did a pretty good job of it when we were given the task because gary picked my evaluation up and read it out and we then had a discussion about it with my being questioned and being able to clearly and fully answer and explain my conclusions. I will try and find the evaluation as best i can to post up here but at the moment do not know where it is.

Film Induction - Lighting/XDcam

We had this induction before the filming as a group project began but i have just got around to posting it so deal with it, basically i was taking pictures of the key parts of the filming with lights process like making sure they are in the right position and making sure there arent any wires trailing around. Also 'sparking the light' is a big health and safety issue stressed to us by Matt because of the dangers of blindness if anyone is looking into the light when it is switched on. The XD cam is pretty straight forward as all the buttons are labelled on it anyway but the thing about the XD is that i think it takes a little time just to get used to and master the use of, we learned this when filming in our film group and Phil (our cameraman) mentioned some important things to watch out for when using the XD in the future. Anyway here are some photos i took in lesson.

You never really understand how important sound is in a piece of video until you do without it which is why in our next project we will be using the big fluffy mic to capture our sound to maximise the quality of it.

Full 1st Poem Storyboard

Simply here are all the shots that will be used in our first 2 min film in storyboard form.

 The contact sheet has mixed about 3 of the shots up into the rest but they are mostly followable as they are numbered. If i can get a link of our finished video up here it will really show how much the storyboard actually looks like the video in relation to the shot types and camera positioning.

Now realised this is because i numbered them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, not 001, 002, 003, 004, 005 which would have solved the contact sheet problem.