MEST2 coursework planning

(a) Broadcasting

Potential topics of work. 

• Modern-noir

or a combination of the following 3;

• The Secret
• Romance
• Friendship.

And potential type of narrative;

• the film's opening to establish genre, character and location;
• a moment of conflict to show your ability to create emotion/atmosphere/tension/excitement;
• a specific set-piece for example: a family conversation over dinner; a training montage; a chase scene;
• scenes that create or communicate a specific emotion such as unease, wonder, suspense, surprise etc.

Your initial task is simple:

Confirm who you will be working with for MEST2;

I'm going to work with Katie, Khadijah and Harkirian
Inspiration and start brainstorming ideas for your short film extract.

• Opening sequence where there is a voice over introducing their not so stable life.
• A scene where the character is alone having to deal with some sort of serious mental health illness?
• Modern slavery? 
• Point of view off a character trying to run away?

Preliminary exercise evaluation

Your evaluation needs to include the following:

• Clear reference to the brief, your planning process, how your script/storyboard/shot list helped create the final product and what you would do differently next time in terms of pre-production
• Detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your film
• Confident use of media language, particularly film language, showing clear understanding of the key concepts of Media Studies (MIGRAIN)

I think the pre-planning was one of our strengths as we had a really detailed shot list which helped us with the script and storyboard. 

However for the storyboard i personally think we could of added arrows to indicate the movement of the camera which would of aided us whilst we where shooting. Moreover we did miss out a few of the things we originally planned to put in but we ended up having too little time to complete all this - we needed to improve our time management a lot. 

As for the brief, we payed a lot of attention to the match on action and made sure our editing flowed when we cut part of. The shot/reverse shot we definitely used carefully during the conversation as we realized it was a very important aspect we had to get right. However, in terms of the 180-degree rule we broke it (by accident.) We payed a lot of attention in making sure we didn't break it, however whilst we were shooting a certain part we ended up breaking the rule as the lighting didn't work well from its position. What we learnt from this is maybe we should use artificial lighting and not only natural lighting in the actual task. 

The following is feedback is for our actual film produced;

Www: 

• The parallel sound worked really well as we had an effective choice in music
• The match on action was definitely a strength especially the scene of opening the door
• The black and white colour scheme worked to our advantage as its a key convention of the genre
• The natural lighting worked as an advantage to create a realistic effect (good choice of window setting)
• The railing scene and the use of focus really worked to create the enigma code of mystery
• The choice of keeping the face hidden until the middle worked as a very good enigma code as the audience wanted to know who this person is

Ebi:

 

• We used the audio correctly and saved a back up file to prevent losing it from corruption
• When the camera panned we should of kept the face in shot as the audience already knew who the character was
• Kept to the 180 rule
• Made better choices on how to improve the lighting if it wasn't working for us
• Kept to our original plan by using the shot list whilst shooting. 

In terms of the key conventions of media. 

The mise-en-scene was a strength of our production. This is because the natural lighting helped to create the effects of solitude and danger. The props, the chain, worked as enigma codes/mcguffins and the costumes where thought out to make sure we didn't look too 'nice.' The setting of the school also strangely worked but i think that was mainly due to the black and white effect, therefore we could of improved by shooting in a different location. Another weakness was that lots of other people where coming into shot making it look less professional. 

The editing process was fairly strong however we should have recorded voice overs after the sound files stopped functioning, the goes for sound too.

I think the cinematography was also an advantage as we used various shot types however i do think we could have had more interesting shots. 

Preliminary exercise

I worked with Katie and Harkirian and our end product was a 1 minute clip of a sequence we titled "contract"
This follows a character walking into a room and exchanging dialogue with another character (in a somewhat serious atmosphere)

Film Language test learner response

WWW: Excellent, detailed analysis
EBI: Re-do question 3

Question 3: How does sound contribute to the atmosphere created in the opening scene (12 marks)

Sound contributes massively to the atmosphere in this opening scene.  One of the key aspect of creating the atmosphere was the exaggerated sound effects, of the diegetic sound, to increase the sudden emotional response evoked in the audience. An example of this is when the camera moves away to how the wall in shot, where there is silence, but suddenly the gun shot sounds causes the audience to suddenly respond in fear. This creates a sudden shift from tension into sudden fear which may cause the audience to link this feeling of fear with the potential villain of the scene.
Another aspect of the diegetic sound is the dialogue which is whispered which helps to create a tense and serious atmosphere which is usually a key aspect of the thriller genre also this gravelly and almost dangerous voice of the 'villain' is in synergy with his costume and the weaker voice of the 'protagonist' with his weaker positioning and costume. But the diegetic sound isn't the only thing to create a certain atmosphere of the scene, the non-diegitic sound also has a huge impact. The non-diegetic music playing in the background is eire and isolated just like the scene we witness therefore is an example of how this parallel music works in synergy with the images we see in order to heighten our emotional response to the narrative. Moreover, there is a noticeable shift in the music when the killers name is said suggesting to the audience that a shift is to come in the narrative and reflect the more dangerous personality of the character - this also builds up suspense as the audience begin to anticipate what this important but 'villainous' character may do next. Furthermore, the music reaches a climax during the flames highlighting to the audience that this is a significant part of the narrative and what the central focus of the opening scene is.

Preliminary exercise

Group: Me, Katie and Harkiran

Location: Corridors and Media Classroom 

Actors: Me and Katie

Idea concept: One character who seems to have more power is asking why the 'job' hasn't been done and threatens the other character at the end.

Sequence of events;

1) Person 1 walks into the classroom

2) Person 2 seems slightly worried

3) The exchange dialogue

4) Person 1 leaves with a threat

5) Screen fades to Black. 

Shot list & Script (in presentation) 

Story Board: