The task was to shoot a 90 second continuity sequence in which a package of some kind changes hands for DepicT! which is a short film competition that challenges budding film makers to make mini-masterpieces of under 90 seconds. All of our shots had to be taken on a tripod & we had to include a zoom, an eye line match, a match on action, a close up & at least one extreme close up. We also weren’t allowed to use any dialogue, unless it was discussed with our teachers, & we had to be especially careful not to break the 180% rule.
We were told about the task & then given ten minutes to each come up with an idea, our first idea was that a man would lose his lottery ticket & face lots of obstacles to get it back. We then developed this idea, considering what obstacles he would face & deciding that in the end he would only win £10. We storyboarded it by considering how long each shot would be & what order we wanted the shots in, before putting it onto paper. We ensured that our storyboard met the requirements by reading the brief before & during doing the storyboard & checked it when we had finished to make sure we had included all the required shots.
I think the shoot went well; we didn’t encounter any serious problems apart from occasionally breaking the 180% degree rule & having to re-shoot. We had to change several things from our storyboards, as we had written in a scene where a dog was to steal the lottery ticket however we soon realised we did not have enough time to include it. We tried to ensure that all of our shots would link up & flow smoothly by shooting everything at least three times, making sure all of the same clothes were worn & carefully thinking about where we had to shoot from if we were doing a match on action. As a group, Liam, Sophie & I, worked quite well together. I think Sophie & I got more access to the equipment because Liam acted in most of our video, but he had access to the equipment when we were shooting scenes he wasn’t in.
Editing went well; because we had already used Final Cut Pro on our induction video we were quite familiar with it however because we had too much footage that we wanted to include we were not able to edit it down to 90 seconds so it couldn't be entered in the DepicT! film competition. We did realise that we had broken the 180% rule a few times, when The Man was running the wrong way in one scene & we pushed a pram the wrong way, however using Final Cut Pro we flipped it & it wasn’t a problem in the end. We departed from our original idea by changing some scenes & completely cutting others. We used two soundtracks, the first was Kyle Minogue I should be so lucky because of the irony as he wasn’t very lucky in losing his ticket & the second was the Benny Hill theme tune, we used this because our video style matched the music. I found the software easy enough to use, obviously because we had used it before so it wasn’t new to me. I made the movie into a MOV file & then reduced its size & changed it to a FLV file using Adobe Flash Video Encoder before uploading it to my blog. I then used Idvd to burn my movie onto a DVD.
The opening shot of our video is a medium close up of The Man’s bum as he dances, we decided to use this shot for humour. The video then cuts to a medium long shot of The Man washing up in the kitchen, as he listens to Kyle Minogue on the radio. We adjusted the audio track using the clip overlays to make the music quieter as we had a close up of the radio whilst the radio presenter spoke. It was important to adjust the sound levels at this part of our video as the present delivers crucial information. We then use several medium shots of The Man in the kitchen, & an eyeline match to a POV shot when he holds the ticket & looks down at it. We use a match on action as you see The Man throw his ticket out the window in anger & then you see it falling out of the window. We then go to a medium close up of The Man, realising he has actually won, then back to a medium shot as he runs out of the room & another medium shot of him running down the stairs & out of the building. The shot where the ticket flies in the air took quite a while to shoot as we had to leave the camera rolling & continuously drop the ticket into the shot, hoping we would get at least one useable shot. We did but when it came to editing we reversed the shot so it wouldn't break the 180 degree rule. We use an establishing shot as you see The Chav Mother walking down the street, pushing the pram before cutting to a high angle close up of her pram as the ticket falls into it, then to a very long shot as she stops to pick up her baby’s blanket & a close up as The Man rummages through the pram. We use a long shot as you see The Man running away from the pram & a close up of The Chav Mother as she yells at him. We have a long shot of The Man running around the corner, then cut to a medium close up as he realises he has lost his ticket. We use a medium long shot of Pee Man coming into pee & The Man running, then a high angle medium shot of the ticket being peed on which cuts to a medium close up of the ticket getting soaked & then we cut back to the medium shot of Pee Man peeing, this is a match on action shot. For this scene we bought apple juice to use as the Pee Man's urine as we obviously couldn't use real pee. We used match on actions for the peeing shots & We have a long shot of The Man running in & Pee Man walking out; to a medium shot of The Man picking up the ticket & low angle close up of him. We then have a medium long shot as The Man walks into the post office & another when he is in the post office, followed by a medium shot of him handing over his lottery ticket, then there is a close up of him showing his excitement as he holds the money he has won. We then have a medium close up of The Cashier as she watches Liam run out of the post office. We use a medium shot & a slow pan to show Liam running out of the post office. And then we have a long shot of him running outside of the post office & we use a freeze frame shot as he jumps into the air. To create the right mise en scène for our The Lottery Ticket we carefully thought about where we would film, we chose Liam's house for the kitchen scenes as it was close by & Ellie's Mum's Post Office for the scene where he cashes in his lottery ticket as it was also close by & it would be easy to get permission from them to film there. We also considered what clothing we wanted our characters to wear for The Lottery Ticket & what other props we might need, like the Pram & the Police Man's hat to give the idea that The Chav was pregnant, & collected them from the college's props closet.
We were told about the task & then given ten minutes to each come up with an idea, our first idea was that a man would lose his lottery ticket & face lots of obstacles to get it back. We then developed this idea, considering what obstacles he would face & deciding that in the end he would only win £10. We storyboarded it by considering how long each shot would be & what order we wanted the shots in, before putting it onto paper. We ensured that our storyboard met the requirements by reading the brief before & during doing the storyboard & checked it when we had finished to make sure we had included all the required shots.
I think the shoot went well; we didn’t encounter any serious problems apart from occasionally breaking the 180% degree rule & having to re-shoot. We had to change several things from our storyboards, as we had written in a scene where a dog was to steal the lottery ticket however we soon realised we did not have enough time to include it. We tried to ensure that all of our shots would link up & flow smoothly by shooting everything at least three times, making sure all of the same clothes were worn & carefully thinking about where we had to shoot from if we were doing a match on action. As a group, Liam, Sophie & I, worked quite well together. I think Sophie & I got more access to the equipment because Liam acted in most of our video, but he had access to the equipment when we were shooting scenes he wasn’t in.
Editing went well; because we had already used Final Cut Pro on our induction video we were quite familiar with it however because we had too much footage that we wanted to include we were not able to edit it down to 90 seconds so it couldn't be entered in the DepicT! film competition. We did realise that we had broken the 180% rule a few times, when The Man was running the wrong way in one scene & we pushed a pram the wrong way, however using Final Cut Pro we flipped it & it wasn’t a problem in the end. We departed from our original idea by changing some scenes & completely cutting others. We used two soundtracks, the first was Kyle Minogue I should be so lucky because of the irony as he wasn’t very lucky in losing his ticket & the second was the Benny Hill theme tune, we used this because our video style matched the music. I found the software easy enough to use, obviously because we had used it before so it wasn’t new to me. I made the movie into a MOV file & then reduced its size & changed it to a FLV file using Adobe Flash Video Encoder before uploading it to my blog. I then used Idvd to burn my movie onto a DVD.
The opening shot of our video is a medium close up of The Man’s bum as he dances, we decided to use this shot for humour. The video then cuts to a medium long shot of The Man washing up in the kitchen, as he listens to Kyle Minogue on the radio. We adjusted the audio track using the clip overlays to make the music quieter as we had a close up of the radio whilst the radio presenter spoke. It was important to adjust the sound levels at this part of our video as the present delivers crucial information. We then use several medium shots of The Man in the kitchen, & an eyeline match to a POV shot when he holds the ticket & looks down at it. We use a match on action as you see The Man throw his ticket out the window in anger & then you see it falling out of the window. We then go to a medium close up of The Man, realising he has actually won, then back to a medium shot as he runs out of the room & another medium shot of him running down the stairs & out of the building. The shot where the ticket flies in the air took quite a while to shoot as we had to leave the camera rolling & continuously drop the ticket into the shot, hoping we would get at least one useable shot. We did but when it came to editing we reversed the shot so it wouldn't break the 180 degree rule. We use an establishing shot as you see The Chav Mother walking down the street, pushing the pram before cutting to a high angle close up of her pram as the ticket falls into it, then to a very long shot as she stops to pick up her baby’s blanket & a close up as The Man rummages through the pram. We use a long shot as you see The Man running away from the pram & a close up of The Chav Mother as she yells at him. We have a long shot of The Man running around the corner, then cut to a medium close up as he realises he has lost his ticket. We use a medium long shot of Pee Man coming into pee & The Man running, then a high angle medium shot of the ticket being peed on which cuts to a medium close up of the ticket getting soaked & then we cut back to the medium shot of Pee Man peeing, this is a match on action shot. For this scene we bought apple juice to use as the Pee Man's urine as we obviously couldn't use real pee. We used match on actions for the peeing shots & We have a long shot of The Man running in & Pee Man walking out; to a medium shot of The Man picking up the ticket & low angle close up of him. We then have a medium long shot as The Man walks into the post office & another when he is in the post office, followed by a medium shot of him handing over his lottery ticket, then there is a close up of him showing his excitement as he holds the money he has won. We then have a medium close up of The Cashier as she watches Liam run out of the post office. We use a medium shot & a slow pan to show Liam running out of the post office. And then we have a long shot of him running outside of the post office & we use a freeze frame shot as he jumps into the air. To create the right mise en scène for our The Lottery Ticket we carefully thought about where we would film, we chose Liam's house for the kitchen scenes as it was close by & Ellie's Mum's Post Office for the scene where he cashes in his lottery ticket as it was also close by & it would be easy to get permission from them to film there. We also considered what clothing we wanted our characters to wear for The Lottery Ticket & what other props we might need, like the Pram & the Police Man's hat to give the idea that The Chav was pregnant, & collected them from the college's props closet.
Improved on: 5th January 2008
A very good evaluation, which explains some of the production stages and provides a detailed description of your final product. This description could be more analytical and could use more meedia terminology - if it did it could get D3 - as it stands it gives you M3. If you want to try to upgrade to Distinction please see one of us in SET time.
ReplyDeleteSean and Ellie