Pitch Productiong

(3/12/15) In today's lesson we all presented our pitches about our opening sequence to a film. Our film is a spy, intelligence, action, thriller styled film. It is about the British intelligence at war with foreign excellences. Our opening scene will see a British agent getting ready & then proceeding to see and spy on 2 foreign agents. He is then seen and followed. The screen goes black and a gun shot is heard, this is when the title to the film will appear. We got asked the questions of who will be the actors and what locations will we use. We will think about the best answers to these questions.

Foundation portfolio - Main task brief

(17/11/15). Our task is to film the opening sequence of a new fiction film, including titles and soundtrack to last approximately 2 minutes. The first thing is that it needs to get people intrigued so that they'll want to watch the rest of the film. The beginning of the film always sets the scene so we'll need to give a fair reflection what is to come in the film. The music should only be non-copyright music. We should use many different sounds throughout the video, not just 1 track over the whole thing. We need to learn how to merge tracks together to add sound effects. Research many different costumes and props that would be of use. The film is fiction so therefore it doesn't have to be real, it can be anything we want. Although the video is very short it needs to be very significant so that people watch more. And the video should probably be left on a cliff hanger because this'll entice people into watching on.

Short films & pitching

(12/11/15) Today we watched a presentation from year 13 student Emma. The presentation was on short films and pitching your ideas. We had to think of a film and pitched it to the class to see how quickly they could guess it. A short film is usually 5-10 minutes and has a clear story that you can follow easily.

Presentation

(9/11/15) Today we presented our video clips with editing terminology to the class. My presentation was on a hustle video clip showing Ash performing a scam. I feel my presentation went well and that I talked about everything that was in the clip.

Editing

(4/11/15) In today's lesson we started editing our preliminary task. We got all of the video clips onto our computer and then put them onto Movie Plus. Tomorrow we will proceed to finish the editing and post our task to our blogs

Preliminary task

This is our Preliminary task. We feel it went well and have identified some areas to improve on. These things will be making sure the lighting is always right and taking more takes whilst filming. We used the "pan" shot when Alfie started walking up the stairs, this was used to follow him to show, clearly, what he was doing. We used close ups when he was coming round corners to show his dull facial expression, emphasising the point that our clip isn't a happy one, but a dark one. We also present Alfie at a lower angle so we're looking up at him and down at Michael. This is a juxtaposition because Michael is actually the more powerful one in the scene.

Production

(8/10/15) In today's lesson we learnt about production. What pre production, production and post production consist of.

Pre production: - Planning - Actors - Script - Story board - Props - Organisation - Location - Costumes - Script - Equipment.

Production: - Acting - Filming - Directing - Lighting - Sound.

Post production: - Editing - Fine tuning - Sound - Special effects - Titles.

And also what to remember or remember to do whilst filming on set:-
- Working equipment
- In control of location
- List of shots
- Buffer shots (10 seconds before and after)
- Multiple takes
- Everyone understands what's happening
- Re-watch takes
- Filler shots

Camera Editing Task

(1/10/15) In this lesson me and Michael learned how to edit our video using Movie Plus editing software. We learnt how to make clips smaller and quicker. We took out the bits at the end and the beginning that weren't needed. This made the film flow a lot smoother and allowed the viewer to feel the tension. we also learnt how to link two clips together and make it look smooth.

Analysis of text

(24/9/15) We watched a video clip from the film L.A Confidential. In this clip it shows the good cops interrogating a bad lawyer. There are many different camera shots in this. And there is a build up in action using the camera shots. At the start of the clip they follow the cops into the lawyers room without any cuts or editing. This is too suggest that what is happening is happening at an easy pace. It then speeds up when the cops become physical. And this is shown by the director using lots of different camera shots and lots editing to make it very fast pace. The clip also makes up the viewers mind on who they like and don't like within the first 15 seconds. This is done by the editing and camera shots.

Examples of editing

(24/9/15) We watched a Shaun of the Dead clip to see how editing has been developed and to look at examples of editing. We noticed from the clip that there was many different edits, and many different cuts. This is showing how editing has developed massively as it has gone from being a 'one take' to having 100 edits in a 5 minute segment. in the 'Shaun of the Dead' clip it shows a variety of camera shots including reverse angle when you see Shaun looking at the mirror and then the mirror showing Shaun's landlord in a different edit.

History of editing

(24/9/15) Editing has changed a lot since the first ever film was made in the 1890's. It use to be one camera filming the entire scene, and no editing or movement, just a one take kind of theory. But a man called George Melies was filming one day and his camera died whilst filming a bus. When his camera was restarted a hurst was there instead. Melies called this the Jump cut. Melies also created the fade in & face out, overlapping dissolves and stop motion photography. However whilst filming his 500 films he never once moved the camera. However now in films there are many different camera positions, many different cuts and techniques that directors use.

Analysing

(21/9/15) In today's lesson we listened to a soundtrack from a programme so that we could listen carefully and write down what we could hear. We also watched a 'doctor who' clip and analysed it on an A3 sheet to look closely at Props, Lighting, Appearance, Costume, Expression and Setting.

Camera shots and angles

(17/9/15) In today's lesson we got given examples of all the camera shots and angles. We then got in to pairs and went to take our own version to get a good feel of what each shot does and how it is taken. After we had taken every shot we returned to make a PowerPoint showing how you should edit the pictures to make sure they are a rectangle shape, not like a square! This gave me a better understanding of the camera shots and camera angles.

Camera shots

(10/9/15) In todays lesson we studied all the different camera shots that directors use, we learnt the reasons why, and what effect they give to the viewer. The camera shot the director uses makes a lot of difference as to what effect it has on the viewer. We also watched the Superman villain vs Superman and cops scene. We reviewed all the different camera shots that were used and why they were used. A couple of the shots we learnt about were close up; extreme close up; worms view and birds eye view.

1st media blog

(3/9/15) From today's lesson I gained a better understanding of the AS Media course and what I will be doing over the next 2 years. I will be making a weekly blog that reviews the past lesson and what I've done and need to achieve. Media is a lot of things. It's things such as radio, newspapers, news, social networking sites etc.