Shot Practice Storyboard

This is our storyboard where we practiced different shots types and angle to help us with our final piece. There are some things that we done well and some things that we could improve on. In some of our shots, there is too much background shown and the subjects aren't always in the centre. Apart from that we have some interesting shots that have good angle, shot distances and shot types, such as, low angle, POV shots an wide shots.

Criticism on the shots helped us learn from our mistakes when we start filming our teen film. Criticism included too much space around the subject and lots of space within the shot that wasn't necessary. 

Storyboard for teen film

More ideas for final film

Props
Props needed for our final film


There are some props that are essential for the main character and will assist the representation of the character to let the audience understand the character.

These are the props I will use: 

• A Black Nike Tracksuits
• Hoop Earrings
• A String Handle Backpack

All of these props contribute to the stereotypical deprived and violent character that we are trying to portray.

Film Ideas

Film Ideas

The film that my group was initially thinking to use as guidance was Clueless which is about a girl in high school who is like a fashion guru, and she helps a new girl to her school as well as trying to find a boyfriend. This is a concept that we thought would be easy to replicate but in reality, they are rich and living in america so, we cant copy their huge houses, luxurious cars and ability to drive so we had to chose film that was more easily duplicated but us.


 

Our next film idea to take ideas from is Fish Tank, and this is the film that we are sticking to at the moment. This is a film about an aggressive girl called Mia, who lives wit her single mum and sister and she solves to dance. From out initial planning, I will be the someone like main character, Hayley will be filming it with the camera, and Gizem and Brandy will be the girls that I don't like. We will try and film in a flat and we will dress like how people who live in council flats stereotypically dress.

This film would be easier for us to be inspired by because it is set mostly in a council flat in east London, which is an ideal location for us. Also, she walks around a lot in the film which we can do very easily and the clothes and props are thing that  my group can easily get to use.

Here is a clip from fish tank that we would want to use in our short film:

Research - Sound in Movies

Research: Sound in Teen Movie openings

Sound in movie openings is very important and it does many different things. Sound can create the mood of the rest of the film, it can help tell the story of the movie and the dialogue in the sound can also help tell the story. The sound can also contribute to allowing the audience to know that a flashback is taking place.

Sound can easily create a certain mood for a film, if chosen correctly.

Research: 1

Step Up is a teen film about a boy from a deprived area in America who gets a chance to earn a scholarship in an Arts school through dancing with a ballet student already in the school. Throughout the film, he falls in love with the girl he dancing, conflict arises with him and his best friend and dancing some ballet himself, even know he loves dancing to hip hop.

The sound used in the opening of sets an urban mood and it also suggests conflict as the music is quite aggressive. We can see from the music that the movie is a dancing film because the sound is upbeat - a song that would be danced to.

Research 2:

21 Jump Street is an action comedy film where two unachieved cops are sent to an American high school and are made to blend in with the drug dealers and bring them down. This is humorous because it is unrealistic for two grown men to blend in with high school children.




This sound exaggerates the humorous tone of the movie as this song was made to be funny and it has a 'jokey' feeling and lyrics, which related to the the genre of the film.

Research 3:

You got served is a film that is based upon dance battles, conflict in friendships and conflict in morals, so it is highly based on conflict. It is mostly about two teenage boys that live in America and have a passion for dancing, to hip hop music and they need to win battles to financially support themselves and their families. 

Th sound used in the opening of this film is a urban song which relates to the style that is danced to during the duration of the movie. It is also quite aggressive which represents the dance battles and the other conflicts in the teen film.

Primary ideas for the final film

Instead of coming up with a completely new idea for our filming, we decided to take some inspiration from an existing film that is somewhat relevant to our lifestyle making it easy for us to take inspiration from. The film we decided to use is called Fish Tank. We decided to use Fish Tank especially because the film is based in a location that is easy for us to replicate. 

At one point we decided to take inspiration from the film Clueless. However, this is too difficult to take elements from as it's based in a sunny, be achy area of America which is very much different to the suburban area of London we are in and therefore too difficult to replicate compared to Fish Tank. Props are also much more difficult to replicate including the use of cars, alcohol, school lockers etc.

Fish Tank isn't a big blockbuster film like Clueless is therefore the need to not make it blockbuster worthy takes the pressure off our group. 

Fish Tank doesn't have many characters, as it mainly focuses on one character, it makes it much easier for our four-memeber group. We will all be able to act but also take part in filming and editing in a balanced way.

Ideas from Fish Tank
- One of the scenes included one of the first scenes when the main character, Mia, is seen going to the car park where other groups of girls are dancing. There is then confrontation and aggressiveness between them. We thought that Gizem and i would play as the girls who confront Mia, we will replicate the dance moves of the girls. Tee will be playing the role of Mia. 
- I also thought it'd be significant to establish all the different characters of the film especially those she has the most conflict with. In fish tank for example she has the most conflict with her mother and younger sister, this would be significant to establish in our film opening. This may be through arguments, physical violence of simply foul language towards each other but the point is to show that the family home is broken and isn't a typical or desired family environment.
- Further ideas from fish tank include the outfit ideas. I find Mia's outfit in Fish Tank perfect o

Creative Common: Sound Practice

To learn how to use Creative Common to download music, we used a scene from Higher Learning that requires four different types of music to establish characters, emotions and locations. The video we used had no music and was only footage, therefore we relied on mise-en-scene and the characters themselves to determine the type of music to use in each scene. The media department of our college had made a tutorial video for us students, so we knew how to use Creative Commons properly keeping in mind with things like licensing and copyright issues. We searched for sounds and musics that can relate to different parts go the scene and we put it in place using Final cut pro. We had to use either SoundCloud, Jamendo or ccMixter. We think that this is a good piece of work for our first attempt.

The four different pieces of music we used included:

• Elevator music (we got this music from Jamendo)
  This music could be used to represent travelling and the music shows that something may be coming.

• Old school hip-hop/RnB music (music for this was for the first male character, we shoe this in relation to stereotypes and own knowledge of the music listened to in the time period, music was obtained from SoundCloud)
  This music creates an urban feeling and represents the old hiphop era.

• Calm relaxing, bubbly music (This was the female character, music was obtained from SoundCloud)
  This creates a calm feeling are represents a laid back character.

• Hard punk rock music (this music was used for the final male character, from the clothes he wore to the wallpapers he was posting on the walls to help with the possible music. Music for this character's scene was also taken from SoundCloud)
  This represents a rough, carefree character and sets a harsh feeling.

Researching Music and Sound

As part of our research for our teen film openings, we did a task that included using Creative Commons to find unlicensed music to put on existing clips from teen films.

One example we used was over a clip from a film called Higher Learning. We used a fast hip hop beat to show that college is a fast environment and doesn't slow down as there is always something happening.

A second example we used was over a clip from a film called Love and Basketball. We used an angry tension building beat to emphasise the argument the couple are having at the beginning of the clip.

The third example we used was over a clip from a film called Submarine. We used slow folk music to add a calming atmosphere to the clip. The clip shows a beach which implies the film is a slow film and isn't a fast paced action movie.

We edited the music onto the clips using Soundtrack Pro to cut the amount of music that we needed for that clip before editing it onto the clip using Final Cut Pro.

We used different types of music to show the different types of music that is available in teen films. From fast and upbeat hip hop to slow and calming folk music.

Music used in a teen film

I've decided to pick the movie FishTank for the evidence of the type of sound or music used in a teen movie because I really like the sound.      

Interview on shot by shot remake of The Breakfast club

A video was made interviewing one of the members of the group (Brandy). This was an interview of the director of the shot by shot remake task of the Breakfast Club. Questions were asked by the other members of the group. This is part of our reflection on the shot by shot remake of the movie, reflecting on topics such as the limitations of location, positive and negatives of the whole process. 

This is meant to be like a vlogging task which adds another feature of technology to the blog - only a flip camera was used for this interview. 

Reflective post (BC remake and blogging update)

In terms of my blog, i am somewhat below the target in terms of the amount of posts i should be at. I currently have 16 posts however, the recommended amount of posts suggested by my teacher at this stage of the coursework should be 20+ posts. Also, i have realised that i need to use more technology in my blog posts instead of the same technology consistently in my posts, i should use extra time in my days to explore other things such as Go!Animate, Vlogs, Prezi/Slideshows, etc which make my blogs even more interactive and another way to present my ideas. 

This is my teacher's comments about my current blogging progress:

"Brandy - you're doing well on your blog so far.  There is a wide variety of films referenced on your blog which is pretty much up to date, and it's looking really interesting visually, but you could always use a wider variety of technology! Hints to improve it: Thurs 5th Dec - you need the word 'audience' in the title as this is the focus of the task.  It would be good if you could explain clearly why the film industry has the titles in a particular order. And you also need more planning for the shot by shot remake.  You could easily push this into a level 4 - it's really close - so I look forward to you making your improvements! " - Mary



We have just finished our remake of the Breakfast Club which was almost a practice run of what the real practical will be like. It wasn't a perfect film production especially since we had many restrictions e.g. no use of cars and certain props so we had to use some level of creativity, location limitations, etc. Difficulties like these made it difficult to make a well planned remake of the film however, we did have the chance to explore with cinematography which is useful for us when we make our official opening scene for our own film.

We also made an interview where we used a flip camera, my group then asked me questions to reflect on my experience of making the breakfast club remake. There is a separate blog post about this and the footage. 

Practical film ideas.

For our practical film our group has been inspired by the film Fish Tank.

Fish Tank is a film that follows a teenager named Mia and her life whilst living on a council estate in East London.

My role will be as the cinematographer which will include taking care of how the shots will look and also taking care of mise en scene.

Our locations will be similar to the ones in the film as they are easily available to us as we are also based in East London which can be seen in shots like these

A second initial idea on our real film

So we've discussed the role each of us will take. We've come to a conclusion that Tee will be Mia the main character, Hayley will be the cinephotographer and myself and Brandy are the dancers. Brandy and myself will need to come together to produce an effective dance routine as well as props to represent our characters. We're inspired by the scene where Mia's in the park watching the girls dance and then she suddenly confronts them causing a fight. We will need to think about another part of the film to turn into reality because we need to be filming for 3 minuets minimum and that scene on its own, isn't efficient.  We are currently discussing where to film and it's rather difficult to locate this connecting to the real environments where FishTank is set. We've Just decided to film the scene where Mia is dancing in the flat.

Reflective Post

Reflective Post
Currently, on my blog, I have 20 posts and that is the amount that we should have but I think I should have one or two more extra posts. 

In my blog now, the technologies I have are, Gifs, Prezzie, A Video and Pictures.
I need to use more technologies in my blog, such as, Go!Animate, Wordle, Vlogs and Prezzie. I learnt how to use Prezzie on my Bling Ring post.

My teachers have said my blog is good but I need more technologies ad this is what I will do to boost my knowledge and skills on blog but also to boost my grade.

Reflective post

My blog is fully up to date. I currently have 22 posts labelled under my name before publishing this post.

I always try to include a variety of technologies however, I will admit, most of the time I include stills, photos, gifs and embedded videos.

To improve my blog I will include more technologies and use different programmes to show my work on instead of using the same ones and repeating myself. For example, I can use Flickr to create a slideshow of photos and stills instead of just uploading the photos and have them take up lots of space on the blog.

Reflective post

Well, to be honest I beleive that I'm in a really good place compared to other members of my class. I try to get done as much as I could to the best of my ability however of course, there are little things on my blog that I should be correcting. For example; Keeping the gifs and still images consistent. I also need to make sure that I use a variety of technology within my blog to progress and achieve a much better grade. I will make sure I would include things like; Vloging myself at home talking about my experiences and important things like that, embedding prezi, Twitter, Instagram, and toast.

My teacher's comment really boosted my confidence, "Gizem is a great student.  She has such a friendly disposition, she is conscientious and so hardworking she's a joy to have in the class.  Gizem is currently working on her coursework blog which is of a very good standard indeed.  She's posted some excellent research and planning, has analysed some specific clips and has also posted some extra work of her own which is super.  Gizem should really continue working at this level as if she does she could achieve a top grade A for this part of the coursework.  In her exam units Gizem has consistently achieved solid C grades.  Her work is thorough but could improve if she worked on her phrasing and style.  A great start to the term overall.targets: aim for top grade A blog. use more technology in your blog. work on essay style before exams in May."

Reflecting on my lovely teacher's comment about me, I will definitely be taking this into consideration and work on my blog much more efficiently and use different types of technologies.

Stills from filming our remake of The Breakfast Club

A mini car we used as an alternative to a real car. This mini car was used for the jock character and his arrival to the college.

This is a shot of the 'lonely' girl character of breakfast club. A high angle shot will be used of her in open space to show her lonely arrival to the college.

In the breakfast club clip, there are shots of the different areas of the high school. This is a shot of our camera lady doing shots of different areas of the location (college). Here is a shot of our canteen area.

One of the main characters would be classified as the 'rebel' character. Here is a shot of us preparing to remake his arrival to the college. We are filming her crossing the road, she will have a hoodie to replicate the rebel image. 

This is a shot of our rebel character about to cross the road. We are doing it at a time where it replicates the careless attitude that the character in the actual clip has. She will cross at a time where another car will be behind her.

We also put together a Flipagram of the pictures we took behind the scenes and uploaded it onto Instagram which can be linked to here:

Filpagram

Editing:

Our shot by shot remake was edited using Final Cut Pro

We also used a VoiceOver in our shot by shot remake

We printed the script from the Internet before recording the voiceover

Planning for The Breakfast Club remake.

Props

We used toy cars to replicate the cars the characters in The Breakfast Club arrived in as we personally don't own our own cars to use. As the Breakfast Club has different ways of transport and cars that represent the different characters, we aimed to the same for our props. For example the toy we used underneath is a car we thought would be a good replicate of the character which had arrived to school in BC with his sibling and mother to the high school. 

We used a fig rig to replicate a steering wheel for a scene inside the car. We also used a location that had a big window and bight daylight shining so that it replicates the weather of BC quite well.

We used sunglasses for the rich character to make the character stand out and make it obvious that she's stuck up and does what she likes because she's wearing them inside. Her costume is also a very girly style compared to the other characters, so we aimed to show this in Gizem's outfit as well. 

Clothing

For the lonely girl character, she wore a coat with a big black hood which allowed her to appear more isolated than the other characters.

For the jock character, she wore a hoody to look more sporty.

The rebel character wore a big coat with a massive hood outside when it wasn't raining to emphasise that she does what she likes.

Locations

We used the crossing next to the college for the rebel character to use to cross.

We also used the main entrance for the rich character to walk in because the doors are automatic and the doors imply that doors open for her because she's rich and can afford to do so.

Inside the college locations included:

the Hallway

Canteen 

Bench areas.

Shot by Shot Final: The Breakfast Club

Ideas for the film project.

Lately myself and my group have been thinking about what film would be the best for us and we've come to a conclusion that our film would be inspired by the movie 'Fish Tank'. 'Fish  Tank' is a great British drama film written and directed by Andrea Arnold. The film won the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival which shows that the film was quite popular during the 2009 year. 'Fish Tank' was set in London and released in September 11 2009.

 

'Fish Tank' isn't a Hollywood budget film however is an average-high budget about 3 million, it was  funded by the BBC the film which proves that 'Fish Tank' isn't a Hollywood film which also is the reason why it inspired me because it wouldn't be such a difficult movie to make as in the opening, the film is set in a flat and we are able to get hold of those ordinary things like costumes and areas to film.

When filming, I and my group will need to be very organized and prepared to produce the best film we ever have because this is extremely important for us all. To make sure that we don't struggle, we will be discussing where to film the flat scene in the opening as well as the initial props we will need to have. Each of us will be playing a role of course.

Donnie Darko analysis - editing and camera.

In the Donnie Darko clip I have been looking at the camera techniques and the editing techniques.

One camera technique I looked at was the first shot. The clip starts with the camera upside down and slowly turning around to face upwards using a slow motion editing technique. 

These wide shots show that when kids go to school their world is different than at home. When kids are at home they have more freedom whereas they don't in school. There's always specific work to do in classes, even at lunchtime there's usually a set menu with not a lot of variety. 

Another camera technique used is 'panning.' When the three boys walk into the school they all look straight ahead as if they are looking at somebody.

After the camera pans, there is a mid shot of another person. The characters on both sides of the camera exchange dirty looks to each other. The slow motion in these shots imply there is a rivalry between the characters, like in a boxing match when the opponents face each other.

The whole clip doesn't have many cuts throughout it, this reflects that the school day is always constant and there's always something happening such as lessons and then lunch and eventually when it's home time. 

Donnie Darko Analysis Editing and Camera

Editing and Camera 

In the clip Donnie Darko, I've been looking at editing and camera work and some of the key editing and camera work I've spotted are; Slow motion, Fast motion, flashes, camera tilting, wide shot, shot transitions, cuts, scene wipes, jump cuts, tracking shot, panning shot and how these things effect the sequence.

At the beginning of the clip, we are introduced a slow beat music and a camera technique used tilting upwards with a slow motion edit technique as the boy opens the car door to get out. Also, the music gets louder and faster after a few seconds of watching the clip, we instantly can tell that the movie is full of drama.

These wide shots show just before the children enter the school in slow motion. 

Then we are introduced to the Another camera technique used is 'panning.' When the three boys walk into the school they all look straight ahead as if they are looking at somebody. 

 After the camera pans, there is a mid shot of another person. This shot shows their dramatic facial expression as well as the background. The slow motion in these shots suggest  there's some sort of conflict  between the two characters,like they've been arguing about something or that they cannot share something in their lives. 

The tracking shot is constantly used within the characters to introduce them to the audience. The camera work has been used to introduce the character/personality of character. For example: when the camera follows the 'good looking guy' as he screws the other guy to present his ugly personality to the audience.