Firstly I created my script and printed off a copy for everyone After choosing and researching my location we went there and set up the equipment to film each act on a different day. Then we started filming.
After exporting all the video footage and audio to my USB stick:
and exporting it to a new premiere pro project:
I began editing. First by setting up a basic sequence and adding some transitions:
I then finished sequencing:
Afterwards I researched how to crop a video and found this source:
which worked and so i cropped out the boom mic from a few scenes:
Afterwards I added my opening text scene and added some transitions:
I then edited my text for each chapter and the opening text:
and drew my storyboard:
afterwards I adjusted my audio by adding an equalizer, adjusting the dynamics and adding a de-hummer as well as adjusting the volume and dialogue settings:
I then started to think about music and researched some free dubstep tracks to use as a music bed for some of my scenes:
and then added it to my sequence:
After this I wanted to add a credits and bloopers reel, but didn’t know how to get the credits text effect. So I researched how and found this:
I then added my credits in by adding the essential graphics bar and selecting roll:
I then adjusted the timing so they wouldn’t roll too fast:
I then created a bloopers reel by stacking all the mistake scenes onto the end of the credits:
I then realised that bloopers on a crime film would be a bit weird so I made them into a seperate video:
Finally I uploaded my short film to YouTube:
and heres the final video:
I also uploaded the bloopers video separately:
Reflection
Overall, I think my production and planning was very good and thorough but my final film could have been better. I should have made the scenes longer and chosen better, quieter locations as the sound wasn’t very good and the fact that we were in college was obvious. Other than that, I liked the storyline and stuck to the script and pre-production well.
In this short film I play Gogo, the referee of the Pokemon match and an onlooker. I also handled audio recordings at some points and filmed some scenes. Playing Gogo was difficult at points when I couldn’t remember my lines but overall was a fun experience and got easier as time went on, I really got into the character and carried my voice and changed my overall personality into a Pokemon referee. Handling audio taught my how to properly use a boom mic, how to set it up, when to use certain components of it and how to use it with a sound recorder. I have already had experience in filming but helping out with Oscars gave me a different perspective on angles and lighting. Also, working on Oscar’s film made me remember that secondary planning in extremely important as when we went to Redhill to film the weather was so bad that we couldn’t and wasted time with no production value, so in my future productions I will definitely be thoroughly planning by looking at locations and weather.
Ryan Parma
For Ryan’s short film production I was playing the ‘mage’ and similar to Oscar’s production sometimes had a problem remembering my lines but it came with time. I also helped out with recording audio a lot and clapping the clapper board as well as recording scenes. It gave me more experience in recording and setting up audio with the boom mic and gave me more experience filming tracking shots. I enjoyed acting as the mage and feel like I did a good job.
I like this short crime movie, directed by Jakob Owens and Ryan Alexander. Starting off with a subject of interest – a girl walking down a dusty road on her own and looking suspicious and tension gradually grows as a man in a truck, seemingly ice at first tries to help. When he offers to call the police the girl refuses and freaks out a little, leading to more questions about her actions and current events in her life. The man gets more controlling and even refers to her as ‘pretty girl’, rising tensions further. As she’s practically forced into the truck he drives off but the truck is swerved. On the edge of our seats and at the top height of tension, the girl comes out and we find that she’s killed him. Questions go unanswered, was she already a murderer? Did she do it in self defence? Did she jut do it for the truck? We’ll never know.
The movie starts off straight away with and adrenaline fuelling scene of the bride (Beatrix Kiddo), re-uniting with Bill at her wedding rehearsal, pregnant with his baby which he is unaware of. In his jealousy and rage of her leaving him, he and the deadly viper assassination squad kill her, her fiancé and all her friends. Little do they know that she actually falls into a 4 year-long coma and wakes up plotting revenge on every single one of them. Throughout the movie, classic Tarantino style, there’s a composition of Beatrix killing each member of the squad whilst looking for Bill, and also flashbacks of her time on the squad and with Bill. There’s a lot of high tension and high violence scenes, especially the ‘crazy 88’ fight scene which won best fight scene of the 21st century:
Camera work –
There’s a mix of colour and black and white scenes throughout, which make the black and white scenes have more effect as they are more rare. This is also to dampen the effects of all the blood and gore for the viewers. The camera angles always focus on the main subject of the scene, which is usually Beatrix e.g.:
There’s also a lot of stand-out camera techniques which is standard for Quentin as he uses them all the time, these include things like a zoom shot:
and a long tracking shot:
Art Direction –
There’s a lot of references to classic crime movies, the main one being a homage to Bruce Lee in ‘Game of Death’ with the throughout theme of classic Asian style combat (katana sword for example) and use of a yellow and black jumpsuit worn by Beatrix.
The Kill Bill soundtrack – in my opinion – is one of the best in the world. A mix of classic fight tracks, western and Japanese songs tie this movie together perfectly. For high tension filled scenes, the songs match up, but also in more relaxed scenes, the music choice is brilliant, for example:
Director –
This is the fourth movie by Quentin Tarantino, a legend in directing. Also director of best-selling movies, Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, Inglorious Basterds and Reservoir dogs – all with prominent themes of crime and violence. In Kill Bill he uses a technique he often uses (also used in Pulp Fiction) where the scenes are filmed in order but edited out-of-order. In Kill Bill, we see the knife fight between Beatrix and Vernita before we see Beatrix get out of the hospital. Tarantino does this to remind us that his movies are not an escape for entertainment or a distraction, but a piece of film meant to be focused on and analysed, with little references to classic movies.
My thoughts –
I think this is one of the greatest films ever created, the storyline fits perfectly and is sequenced effectively, from the manga scene to the award-winning fight scene, the casting, costumes and directing. Everything is practically perfect. I love Tarantino as a director and no one else would’ve pulled off this movie as well as he did.
Movie Analysis 2: A Clockwork Orange
Composition –
The movie begins showcasing Alex and his 3 droogs committing crimes and being overall violent. Increasingly harsh scenes of beatings, slashing, attempted rape just overall nastiness caused by these 4 teenagers. The movie shows a power struggle of Alex over his group which leads to them causing him to get caught invading a woman’s house whilst she’s indoors. Alex is given an opportunity of scientific reformation, the hypnosis of his brain to associate violence with a terrible feeling of sickness, also accidentally leading to his new hatred of classical music – a former favourite of his. After being released as a ‘reformed man’ he gets beaten up by his former droogs and homeless people he used to beat up and torment. He goes home but is turned away by his parents, only to end up back at the house of someone he paralysed and stole from. The man doesn’t recognise Alex until he sings ‘Singing’ In The Rain’ which he also did whilst robbing and smashing up the place. The man slowly tortures Alex with classical music until Alex attempts suicide, causing such injury to his head that he goes back to the way he was, with power over the governor who came up with the idea of his reformation. So in a way, the story is cyclical and teaches the lesson that morality is a choice, not something that can be implemented.
Camera Work –
Stanley Kubrick got very adventurous with his camera angle choices in A Clockwork Orange, seeing that it was released in 1972. For example he uses a extreme wide angle in A Clockwork Orange when angles like this were harder to do and less common:
He also uses tracking shots including a long tracking shot to follow Alex around a record store, the mid to low angle makes him seem so calmly and subtly powerful, like he doesn’t have to prove his power, he just is:
One of Kubrick’s most effective camera angles is a direct close up:
As the movie is narrated by Alex, this eye contact close up right from the beginning establishes him as the main character and gives way to his psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies, creating a fear of him for viewers straight away – useful in crime genre movies.
Art Direction –
As this movie is set in the 60s the fashion is according. With bright colours and weird wigs, along with over the top designed sets:
The soundtrack is mainly made up of classical composures since Alex loves classical music, this has since become a ‘psychopathic trait’. And of course the famous ‘Singing in the Rain’ track.
The use of this has bestowed a new psychopathic trait in the real world, so this is useful for putting across a theme of violence and disturbance.
Director –
The late Stanley Kubrick was one of the best directors in the world. Directing number one movies such as ‘The Shining’ ‘A Space Odyssey’ and ‘Lolita’ he is known for his filming genius. Many of the shots from ‘A Clockwork Orange’ were taken not too far from his home in England as Kubrick despised travelling, especially abroad, yet he still made it work. Also, although regarded as a perfectionist – which he was – A Clockwork Orange only took him 7 months to create, normally directing takes him between 1 and 2 years until the piece is satisfactory for him. Also, the movie was so violent and outrageous, Kubrick received death threats and asked for it to be banned from playing in British cinemas. One original piece of this movie – not taken from the book – was the inclusion of ‘singing in the rain’ after Kubrick asked McDowell if he would dance and he said yes but not very well. He began dancing and singing to this track and within 3 hours Kubrick had the rights to use it.
Crime movies involve a lot of fast paced scenes and highly tense situations. They use a lot of foreboding and suspense and pace often changes extremely fast. Crime movies also use power presenting camera angles, such as low angles to make the characters seem powerful like this shot for se7en:
They often use dolly movements to capture fast paced scenes like this bank robbing scene from ‘the dark knight’:
An example of a crime movie is ‘Snatch’ released in 2000 and directed by Guy Ritchie. This movie uses a lot of dark, mysterious lighting, like in the beginning scene:
It’s opening also features a black screen with white writing with no sound, which creates tension from the very beginning:
Another tension and attention-grabbing feature is the direct commentary in the beginning from the character ‘Turkish’, with no music, just him talking:
Adventure
Adventure movies cover a lot of different things, from children’s classic animations like ‘The Incredibles’ to blockbuster Marvel movie ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. They usually have a clear beginning, middle and end and a plot like this:
Adventure movies contain a series of different shots, high angles, low angles etc. but will have a lot of establishing shots as new settings are discovered and tracking shots are used a lot as adventure movies often have a lot of high-impact action packed scenes which require a lot of fast movement. Adventure movies also require a lot of impactful audio, like explosions, fast paced music, sound effects etc. One example of an adventure movie is ‘Ready Player One’ directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 2018 which features fast paced scenes like this race:
and involves a lot of establishing shots like these:
Ready Player One (2018) Tye Sheridan as Wade Owen Watts/Parzival
Horror
Horror movies can be history marking or something to laugh at. It all depends if they’re done correctly. They contain a lot of special effects, make up and costume use, tension creating audio (including music and sound effects) but its the high pressure and plot revealing scenes that make a horror movie good. High angle shots are often used to portray the fear of the characters and dark lighting is used to create suspense and mystery. One example of a horror movie is ‘Insidious’ directed by James Wan and released in 2010, featuring a very scary looking demon and loads of horror movie basics. Insidious includes a lot of high angles of the victims like this one:
And creepy music like in this scene:
Comedy
Comedy movies often break the fourth wall for comedic effect. They also involve a lot of ‘speed-talking’ monologues – basically summing something up very quickly to make it funnier. Comedies often also involve characters at different ends of the spectrum, one making everything a joke whereas the other is a little more serious. This can be seen in 1995’s ‘Dumb and Dumber’ directed by Peter Farrelly in this scene:
One popular shot is the ‘perspective shot’ which captures a character unaware of something whereas the audience is aware. Like this scene from ‘Austin Powers’ where the woman’s arm is only just covering Austin’s naked body:
Breaking the fourth wall, like these scenes from Deadpool:
can be very funny when used efficiently.
Documentary
Documentary’s often use close-mid angles in a person’s face while talking. They also use on head lighting and over-the-shoulder shots for conversations. Wildlife documentaries also use establishing shots and dolly shots to follow, for example, animals in ‘Animal Planet’;
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