Workshop 2: The 180 degree rule

 The 180 degree rule is a rule that dictates how your camera is set up to film. The 180 degree rule ensures that the audience is sure of the orientation of everything in the scene, and knows which direction everything is facing. This means establishing a "line of action", and only filming 180 degrees around that line. 

Here are some of the shots I tried:

Over The Shoulder

Over The Shoulder

 I tried an Over the Shoulder shot on both sides, this means I took care to always keep the white action figure on the right and the red action figure on the left. By maintaining that line of action, I was able to make the pictures look coherent and sequenced. I also did a Wide shot, at 90 degrees from the line of action.

Wide Shot

Feedback on "Our Pitch"

Feedback for our pitch mainly included the following points:

• Make sure to really figure out the motives behind the woman's attack. The reason behind this is, we run the risk of making her seem insane and/or the antagonist of the rest of the movie, which was not our original intention
• While we received positive feedback on our intentions to create a choreographed fight scene and create a claustrophobic effect within this small confined space, again motives where called into question "Why this elevator? why can't she wait until she reaches the apartment to attack him?
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Group Pitch: Our "Elevator" Pitch

 

Research Task: Saul Bass

 Saul Bass was an American film-maker and graphic design artist, born in New York, USA. He studied at Brooklyn College and the arts Students league of New York. He has won an Academy award for Best Documentary.

Saul Bass was best known for his geometric style, he was an avid user of symbolism and often centered his title sequences around one subject or shape. He used a lot of primary, bold colors, to bring attention to the titles, especially Red.

His title sequences captured a hint of what the movie was going to be about and set the tone for the opening scenes.  For years he worked as only as a graphic Designer for Ad campaigns, and his designs are still prevalent today. He worked mainly through the mid 1950's in Hollywood.

He is best know for his work on The Man With the Golden Arm, The Shining, Vertigo, and The Anatomy of a Murder, Casino, Noth by Northwest, Grand Prix, The Seven Year Itch, Goodfellas, Around the World in Eighty Days, Carmen Jones, It's a mad mad mad amd World and many, many more.

He worked closely with his wife Elaine Bass, on projects for big names like; Hitchcock, Scorsese, Kubrick, Preminger.

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Here are some of the Youtube videos I researched:

Group meetings (4-6) Week 2

Meeting 4

We developed our idea further according to the feedback we received from our teachers, we were advised to steer away from a "first-date" type setting because those usually happen in public and it's quite difficult to write accurately. Therefore, during this meeting , we face-timed and talked about what other scenarios could work to leave two people alone without it being awkward.

Here are the ideas we came up with:

1. In an Elevator

2. Two chefs in a pantry/freezer

3. Job interview

4. Janitor in a bathroom







Meeting 5:


After receiving feedback from our teachers, we decided to look further into the characters themselves and who they are. Each member of our group looked into two attributes of both characters, the guy and the girl, and we talked about how to develop the characters further.


Attributes we looked at included:


Their occupations:


Maybe he's the CEO? or She's a Secret Agent?


Maybe he's confident and She's suave?

Meeting 6:

Our group met over face time and discussed the ides we had and prepared our pitch presentation. We discussed, the woman, who murders the man, and her characteristics, she was untrained, unskilled, and killing the young man for revenge. We also decided to make the character younger than previously, setting the elevator in a University rather than an office. We talked about ensuring that there was as little dialogue as possible, and what we wanted the characters to be wearing, holding, and stereotyped like. We're also considering exploring the idea of presenting this as the possibility of a Rom-com turned thriller, by setting up the two character's like tropes of that genre. The girl seemingly clumsy and naive, and the guy being charming.

Workshop 1: Rule of thirds, composition and depth

Today I researched rules of thirds, depth, and composition, I went around my house and outside to take pictures and create interesting shots.

(Shot set-up)

First I looked at this vase of flowers, in this case, the overhead lighting yellowed the picture, so I turned it off and pulled the curtains of the window pack to light it with more natural lighting, I then aligned the corner of the room and the vase itself along the right-top, and right-bottom lines of the grid, to leave empty space to one side and create focus.

Final Product

(Final product)

(Shot set-up)

(Final Product)

My second shot I decided to focus more on depth. With a more busy and interesting background and foreground, it was a better place to create focus, the elephant, my subject, was centered in the top right axis along the grid. By moving the camera angle down, I was able to create depth of field and make the elephant look much further away than it was.

(Shot set-up)

 For my third shot, I looked at camera angle or perspective and how I could use it to my advantage. I tried to make the trees in this shot look long and dynamic, so I played a lot with depth and angle, making the trees look elasticated almost. By aligning the trees along the center square lines, they all tilted towards the center, making them appear longer, higher, and more imposing.

(Final Product)

Group meetings 1-3 (Week 1)

Meeting 1:

We, my group and I, face-timed and went over our ideas that we hadn't had the chance to cover in our time slot in class. Tegan presented her idea about a Sci-Fi opening scene, where a groups of teenagers become gangs and fend for themselves since all the adults have disappeared and society has crumbled. I presented my idea on a 1950's serial killer, preparing for a date and cleaning his car as the narrative switched between him and his victim trying to escape to contrapuntal music. We all decided we wanted to explore the concept of murder and motive more and would like our opening scene to have it.

Meeting 2:

We decided on out two ideas, Tegan's 1950's tea party murder mystery (thriller), and Fin's espionage casino idea (action) as our backup. we narrowed it down based on what we think we could shoot and capture in the 1-3 minutes we had and with our limited experience and resources, eg: no car chases because it would be extremely hard to film, and no filming at night, because we only have a day to film and can't control the weather.

Meeting 3:

We had just previously met with our teacher to run over our idea, they pointed out two main problems.

1. It is very difficult to film in a specific time period.

2. It is hard to capture and conceptualize a poisoning, which was our original weapon of choice, as we though it fit the "tea party" theme well.

In our third meeting we decided that instead of having multiple people at a party, we would have only two people, so it became a date rather than a party. This was beneficial because we still aren't sure what will be allowed due to Covid-19 restrictions.

We also decided that the woman would kill the man with a gun rather than poisoning, of course now that it was a "first date" she needed a motive, so we created this idea that she wasn't really his date, rather, she had killed his date and was here to kill him too, because she was a serial killer.

We also decided than rather set it in the 1950's specifically, we would simply draw inspiration from the era and dress our actors in formal attire.

By setting this as a first date, we could use our peers as actors, rather than a married couple, which would've had to be adults.

Independent research: filming food

When doing independent research on our idea, I had to keep in mind that we wanted to film a tea-party, and therefore the scene required a lot of food. While we don't plan on having the actors eat the majority of the food on set, I thought it would be important to research how to best film and create appetizing food. Color and perfection play a huge part in whether or not the food looks appetizing, so I decided to attempt some of these film food hacks to make food last and look good on camera.

First, I attempted to shine and "freshen" strawberries, after many hours with no refrigeration, fruit and vegetables often become dull and stale, in order to make the food look appealing for longer, spraying hairspray on the fruit makes it appear fresh and clean, although the actors can't eat it.

   

I also tried to create fake cream or icing using shaving foam. Normal whipped cream and icing melt under light and don't hold their shape. Whipped cream also moulds and rots very quickly, and when melting creates "moisture marks" on the pie, cake or pastry it's placed on. In order to compare, I put whipped cream in a bowl and left it for ten minutes, by the end it had completely melted and become liquid. So instead, studios use shaving cream to look like cream, it's less yellow and easier to clean and manipulate, it also holds stiff peaks for long periods of time without drooping.

Studios find a similar problem with ice cream, if the actors don't plan on eating much of it quickly, it can become a sticky mess in seconds. So instead, studios will dye mashed potatoes different colors and use those instead, it looks virtually identical, but mashed potatoes are still edible and don't melt at all, they also hold the shape of a scoop much better when in a cone because they can't begin to drip. I tried to re create it by buying some ready-made mashed potatoes and dying half pink and half white, they looked delicious, and incredibly realistic.




Some other tactics I will keep in mind:

Studios will pin or stick their garnished to their dished to keep them looking perfect. This is often done with blue-berries on a stack of pancakes, for instance, or a cherry it the top of a milkshake. By pinning them down, they then look the same in every shot. 

By placing cardboard in between layers of cake, it gives the cake more structure, so it's less likely to topple or slouch. They also do this with individual slices of cake, and cover the cardboard with "icing", really shaving foam.

When cooking meat, studios use a "browning liquid" to make it appear to have that perfectly golden brown look that appears so appetizing on screen. They also use engine oil to thicken sauces or syrups and make them appear heavier and get the "perfect pour".

Here are some of the youtube videos I watched:

My production group

 

My group and I have set up a groupchat where we can Face- time at least once a week and talk about meetings and ideas, it has been a great way to stay in communication over lockdown.

The people in my group are Tegan, Anna, Fin and me.

We talk regularly and keep each other updated on what we have done and what still needs completing, so everyone has some idea of what to do, and were all on the same page.

Feedback for Opening scene idea

I presented my Western Opening Scene idea and here was the feedback I received:

The majority if not the entirety of the feedback I received was positive and constructive. My presentation was “well presented” and the “layout (for my presentation) worked effectively” according to my peers. I think I was a little ambitious, however, in what we could shoot in a day.

My oversight was less due to plot and storyline and more to do with the genre itself. Because of the setting of this Western scene “late at night” and “in a different time period,” it would have been incredibly difficult for us to film effectively. The entire scene was meant to take place in a sheriff’s office in a Western town, this would've meant we only had one location. But since Western Sheriffs Offices are commonplace in rural England, it would've been extremely difficult to build and make them look authentic. This is the same as costume and props which we would’ve had to think about for the scene. In the future when I am writing a scene like this, I will take into consideration that I should “elaborate further on details''. I will also think about the logistics of filming at night, during the day. Ideally, this scene was filmed during the sunset or dusk hours, which are “very quick and incredibly hard to film'' so I understand how we could’ve run into a few problems because this wouldn't have been the most effective use of our time.

 
I believe, however, I had a good grasp on the length of the concepts we could introduce in an opening scene “(this scene) fits well into 3 minutes”, and maintained an “interesting storyline” by introducing a genre within a genre or a “thriller within a western”. I was told the scene was something you could “continue watching”, and “leaves an impactful cliffhanger”. I think My idea wasn’t something that had been done or suggested much before and was relatively unique in concept. My storyline included only two characters, minimal dialogue, and no special effects, which were advantages in making it easier to film and edit. It also benefited us due to the restrictions of Covid-19, and possible government guidelines. My idea was clear and concise, and therefore easy to follow without having to establish character. Part of the benefits of using a Western genre was the fact that I had the ability to play off of the tropes we expect from these characters, the sheriffs are the good guys, and the elderly are more experienced. By using these archetypes, we the first-time filmmakers could spend less time establishing the context surrounding these characters.

While we won’t be filming this scene, I think this constructive criticism helped myself and my team think realistically while choosing our final product, because we acknowledged our limitations.

Idea for opening title sequence 3: Action

 

Idea for opening title sequence 2: Thriller

 

Idea for opening title sequence 1: Western

Genre opening scenes: Conclusion

In conclusion, all the opening scenes did a good job establishing characters and their role in the movie and set an acute and accurate tone for the rest of the film they were introducing. The war film, however, Saving private Ryan was much longer than the others, which ran for an estimated 4-6 minutes, while this one was much longer, reaching past 20 minutes in the original film. I think this was necessary to shock and mesmerize its audience and speaks to how well the director told the narrative, and personally, I believe it was necessary for the people in the audience to grasp the horrific idea that was presented to them, and perfectly suited the genre. Therefore I think that scene was the most successful. however, the introductory scene to Ready Player one achieved something similar, introducing an entirely new plane of reality clearly and concisely in much less time while still establishing characters and motive. The least successful in my opinion was the western, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, which I think was done well, and the mystery of the "cowboy" character deserves recognition, however, to create more tone and depth, during the intense shootout scene, in the beginning, I feel the tone could have been set more accurately with a soundtrack playing over the scene, while still including the classic musical motif of the characters. I think it would have also been beneficial to perhaps even exaggerate the angles of the characters more, so the superiority of the "good guys" is more clearly displayed.