Grindleford Recce (Week 5)

Today was the Grindleford Recce and was the first I had seen the rest of the group since Paul came up with the idea, as a group we all liked the idea and saw the potential with the film. On the train journey to Grindleford we looked at the brief and discussed how we could incorporate all the elements within our film.

Colour

• As a group we decided that we wanted the Grindleford shots to be very rich in colour, lots of greens then contrasted that with the dark gray shots of the city.

• Rabbits can only see colour in the spectrum of red, blue, and green.

• The women would wear a red coat so the rabbit could see her in the POV shots.

Lighting change

• As the women walks down stairs turning on the light as enters the basement

• Strobe effect when the rabbit breaks free from his cage and attacks the women.

POV

•  Rabbits point of view

• Women’s point of view

Sequence shot

Once in Grindleford we fond a great place where our sequence shot could take place. As the rabbit is sat down on the rock watching T.V we could see the women approaching in the distance coming in and out of Frame, each time she enters the frame she gets closer and closer to the rabbit.  The rabbit is aware that something’s wrong but by then its too late he has already been captured.  
 The bridge and river are great focal point, unfortunately the weather wasn't great and made everything look a little grey and dull a far cry away from the rich vibrant greens we where expecting. 

Once we found the perfect location for our sequence shot we spent some time walking through the scene and what could potential happen. Paul played the role of the rabbit while Adam was the women. 

I didn't want the shot to be static, i wanted the the camera to follow the old women as she gets closer but knew how difficult this would be without a steady cam. We then walked through the shot as if the camera would be static in-front  of the rabbit. 


I found the Grindleford Recce really useful as it helped me visualise the sequence shot but also could discuss the other elements as well. 

Barnaby the Rabbit

Today Paul proposed an idea about a rabbit called Barnaby the rabbit.

When I read through the concept I really liked the idea and thought it could work really well as a dark comedy and we could incorporate all the parameters of the brief in quite an interesting way.   My only problem was that we wanted to stay away from the stalker film and this idea/concept could potential fall into that type of film. 

Group Meeting First Ideas

Today was the first time that we met up as a group, this semester I will be working with, Adam Young, Elliot Carroll-Dunn and Paul Brannan. I knew the group pretty well but was the first time that I had worked with Elliot and Paul. Prior to the meeting we had set up a Facebok group to help use organise meeting but also to generate ideas.  Before coming to the meeting I had been working on an idea and was keen to discuss this with the group.

My idea evolves around the idea of good cop bad cop, where we see one character play two versions of himself. I wanted the film to be a dark comedy where we see this character constantly blaming his bad life choices on the other character who we find out at the end of the film his actually him. The character is loosely based on Rudy from The Misfit series. I understand the idea is very under developed and needs a lot of work but I really like the install concept, I was keen to hear what the rest of the group thought of the idea but also to see what they had thought off too.

I found it quite hard to explain my idea to the rest of the group, I think they liked the idea but after discussing it as a group we felt that we couldn’t really make it work with the parameters of the brief.

The brief lends it self to a stalker type film where we have one character stalking the other for one reason or another. As a group we really wanted to stay away from this idea as we felt a lot of the other groups would be creating that type of film. Adam then pitched an idea about a man who falls in love with a tree at first I was a little concerned and wasn’t full behind the idea but after he explained it I quite liked it. We have a married couple that have an argument because one of them thinks the other is having an affair but in matter of fact one of the characters is in love with a tree.

We decided that we could meet up in a couple of weeks to discuss this idea further but also gives time to think of any more ideas.

Sequence Shot and POV (Week 4)

In todays lecture we looked at the last two elements that we had to consider and demonstrate in our film. The Point of View shot and the Sequence shot.

The Point of View or POV is a shot that’s filmed from the characters perspective, as the audience we see what the character is seeing. This technique is used in most films. The shot can help create tension in horror films or simple show two people having a conversation. Examples of POV:

(Point of view shot 18:07)

The second element was the Sequence shot also know as a long take. This is where an entire scene is played out from start to finish no cut to a different shot just one continuous one. Examples of Sequence shots/long takes.

The long take in Alfonso Cuaron Children of Men has to be on of my favourites. The camera never leaves to confined space of the small car... The amount of movement there achieve is just incredible.




A short little video i found comparing a long take to a fast cut scene. We follow two characters as one chases another. Seeing the same scene shot two different ways is quite powerful and makes you understand the difference between the two.

Hands on with the canon XF305 (week 3)

Today’s cinematography, where we were supposed to work with the sound group, was unfortunately cancelled due to the sound group not having a tutor.  I was looking forward to the session, as it 

would have been the first time I had used a XF305. As session was cancelled I took the opportunity book out a 305 so i could familiarise myself with the camera.

It took me a little bit of time to work out where everything was positioned.  I thought it was a good opportunity it use to the camera before we started shooting this would mean when we are on set we could be efficient as we wouldn't be messing around trying to change settings. 

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