Comments after finishing the preliminary task from Mori

I feel the preliminary task went very well. Everything went according to plan.
I firstly chose my actors, I took my actors, a male and a female to the room where i was to be filming. I then gave them a brief outline of what they had to do and say, showing them the script at the same time. I then proceeded to film the piece, giving the actors instructions when something wasn't as i wanted it to be. I shot more film than i thought i needed and this gave me an edge once i got the film back onto the computer and started to edit what i had shot.
I am very glad with my editing, I am confident in this area of film making so i was able to throw away any bad film. I am also pleased with the two actors, they responded and preformed as i had hoped.
I also used one prop just to make the video that little bit more believeable, a coat was used to show who the teacher was, rather than her wearing school uniform.
The way i brought meaning to my film was by giving the actors different personalities or moods which meant that any viewer could understand the story more clearly.
To film this piece i used a video camera and a tripod. The tripod was very effective as it meant that i could keep the camera steady as well as filming pan or tracking shots and also high angle shots.
All in all i am very pleased with how my preliminary task went and i am ready to move on to the main coursework movie with my partner Aaron.

Premilanary Task (Aaron's Post)

As in the post before, my filming partner has described the meaning of a Preliminary Task and as he has mentioned that there are some rules that we have to follow and conduct in a professional way. We all had to create a script with a storyboard. My drawings aren't great but they manged to work for me as I basically had to point out to my actors what is needed doing. The main thing that we will practise in this task is how to create a Shot - Reaction - Shot sequence. For those who do not know what this is, it is a shot sequence which shows the shot of the person speaking and then the reaction of the person of he/she is speaking to.

In this clip I will use only two actors for my clip and Direct them in to what I want to create. One of my actors you have heard of already "Mori" and the other actor is a colleague of mine "Patrick". My story is just of a maximum 8 lines. The story is basically about a student who is late for class and shows the reaction of the teacher.

Representation is a key concept to any type of film, otherwise it will not make sense at all to the audience and so because of representation I was forced to use props in order to make the audience realise that this is teacher and this is a student. It took around a maximum of 10 minutes however to complete filming as I tried to get more footage then needed just in case. I have no completed filming and all is left is editing the film which should be fun as this is what we have been practising allot is editing.

Post from Mori - Preliminary Task

Earlier today i started working on idea's for my preliminary coursework task which has some rules which you have to stick to. You have to film a person walking across a room and then sitting down at a table and exchanging a few lines of conversation with someone else. Also this short piece of film has to demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

First things first, i decided on my idea, i then drew up a storyboard along with the script and the idea/story. My story is about a student who is coming to find a teacher in their own time to hand in some prep that is late. The teacher surprisingly decides to be sympathetic and let the student off with a warning.

In the next few days i am going to film this scene using two cameras, i am also going to film more footage than i think i need as this advice has been given to us by an experienced teacher (as Aaron said earlier). Once i have finished my filming i will import the footage and edit it using Premiere Elements 4.

After this task is finished we will move on and do more work on are main coursework piece.

Last Week (Aaron's Post)

Last week I have been very busy as Mori and I have had thoughts about our opening scene. We have been watching different clips in order to gain influences for our own clip. We have also been watching different types of genre just in case we get an inspiration for our opening sequence. We have seen Elizabeth, Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Moulin Rouge and a teenage drama show "Skins". I suppose Mori and I would both agree the fact that the ideas that have shown up in our heads are mostly inspired or gained by "Skins".

To improve our Editing skills, we have been testing on Adobe Premier Elements. This is the programme that we are going to use to edit our clip. Mori and I have been working on SFX to use in our clip although we very much doubt the fact that we will be needing any. Transitions will be a great factor however to establish the fact of scene change.

Both of us are very keen in using the same concept of reservoirs dogs when they had introduced their characters. We shall also use at least two cameras to find the best possible shot and use the footage in editing. We have heard plenty of advice from many people but one suggestion we should keep in our mind is "that you will need more footage then you think".

The Beginning

Today on the 18th of November, "Mori Thomson and Aaron Chopra" embark on an epic journey into movie making.
We have started this blog as our first step into our AS level coursework project. For this piece of coursework we are making the opening sequences of what is meant to be a full movie. However this is not going to be a full film but just the opening few minutes of it. At the moment we are in the process of deciding the clip's genre, codes and conventions and audience. We are aiming to use the 5 technical areas of film making to make our piece effective. These are the 5 technical areas of film making:

1. Sound
2. Mise - En - Scene
3. Cinematography
4. SFX
5. Editing

So far we are looking to create a fast and exciting start to ensure our audiences interest in the film.