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. 

I

Week two lighting (element two)

In todays lecture we looked at the second technical element lighting. Where we looked the lingo, colour temperature, colour filters, density, reflectors and lighting changes in film. As part of our short 5-10 minute film we had to have a  lighting change. We started the lecture in groups where we had to create a spider diagram/ mind map where the word light was in the central bubble, we then added any words that we thought related to the word. 

As a group we added any word we could think of that we thought was related. I thought the exercise was really useful in helping us think, as a group we all had different ideas/words that we thought where related to lights.  I then created this digital copy so it a little bit easier to follow.

We then got handed a page form the American cinematography where it talked about the lighting in Batman Begins.  It talk about different lighting but I wasn’t aware of most of the lingo used in the article.

Lingo	Description
Inky	A small Fresnel spotlight usually 100-150 watts
PUP	Fresnel spotlight 1k
2K	Fresnel spotlight 2k power
5k	Fresnel spotlight 5k power
10k	Fresnel spotlight 10k power
Blonde	200-watt open-faced light.
Redhead	1000 watt open faced light
Dedo	Small spot lights, used a lot in documentary/interviews
Kino	Large lights to flood an area
C47	A cloths pin or a wooden peg to keep Wires organised
C Stands	Stands to hold large reflectors unique leg stand to allow nesting stands within a small area of space

After learning the lingo we then looked at the density of the lights and how it can cast shadows.  The brighter the light the more sharp the shadow will be and vice versa, the dinner the light the softer the shadow. Looking at the Dedo kit it gives you the option to change the brightness of the lamp, however when changing the brightness it also changes the temperature. To get around this if you can

1. move the lamp further away
2. use a reflector to reflect the light off a wall 
3. change the brightness of the lamp and use a colour filter

Colour temperature

http://www.3drender.com/glossary/colortemp.htm

When researching colour temperature I found this useful diagram. Colour Tempter is measured in Kelvin, the higher the Kevin number the colder the shot will be and vice versa. Before the lecture i was a little unclear about kelvin and found this diagram really useful. 

Lighting Change


After the break we then looked at lighting change, one of the parameters of our brief was to have a lighting change. We spent the next half an hour looking different lighting changed with in films, to help use think about how we could incorporate it in our own film but also what effect the lighting changed had on the audience.

In Matilda they are a couple of lighting changes in the film in this clip, but the most noticeable happens around about 9 minutes and 20 seconds into the film. This lighting change is used as a transition from night to day as Matilda has a idea that she can punish her parents. This lighting change is an effective way to transition from one time of day to another.

In the Raging lighting change is quite dramatic and is very effective. Looking at examples of lighting changes has given me a couple of ideas about how to use it to create tension but also using it as a transition between night and day.