Brief 4, Lighting

Worked with, Morten, Thor, Mundhir, I worked on the lights and did the editing, (although the titles were unfortunately not my idea)

Bromance with natural light; 

Bromance using no natural light;



This brief was very fun, Learning how to use the lights made me feel very professional! Although carrying the lights up and down a hill was not fun.
We worked well as a team as the Producer (Morton) controlled the group well and told us exactly what he wanted from each of us. We found that using the natural light was somewhat easier, and more realistic, the setting in the first film feels like a real place and a real setting whereas in the second film (or the sequel) the setting could be seen as confusing.
 One thing that we should have considered was having matching titles for both films, if we considered the second as a sequel then we should of had matching titles. However I do believe that it makes the second one somewhat more amusing.

Bicycle Thieves 1948

Vittorio De Sica's Neorealism film Bicycle Thieves is set in post war Italy, It's a tragic story about a Husband and father who needs to earn a living for his family. After his bicycle is stolen he is unable to work and he does everything he can to try and get it back, eventually stealing a bicycle himself but being caught, his young son see's and we are left wondering what is to become of the family and how other family's who couldn't even get jobs in the first place.
 I found the film very moving and interesting as all the actors used in the film were amateurs, real people from Italy who knew exactly what life was like at the time, people who were in a way, living the film.

Images like this which show the desperation in the characters faces, here we have Antonio and son Bruno wondering what will happen to them now the bike has gone.
It seems so sad that even a child is having to understand what its like to struggle without a job. But there were simply none going.

Sharon's lecture last week discussed how Realism could be beautiful, and although the pathetic fallacy here portrays the actors loss and sadness as they know that if they don't get the bike back they will be in a very bad situation, how ever there's something to me that makes the image quite beautiful, like Romantic cinema.

Chew, Film with continuity, less than 10 shots. MDA1300

The group; Sofiane, Paulina, Maliha, Claire and myself, I took the role of editor.



This project was extremely stressful! We started off filming in a small room with not much light, with 5 of us in the group trying to work together tension began to rise and eventually we gave up and restarted.
Despite this, the second try was really fun to work on, obviously there were problems, the editing in the first half is a little off and the pace is slow but we passed the task and had a lot of fun in the editing room learning how everything works and now we know for future projects how to edit more efficiently.
Other problems we had was exporting the film from final cut pro, when showing the film to class the gum insert went into slow mo, nobody is quite sure how this happened, but from now on we'll have to watch the film from another computer before showing it in class.
After editing this project editing has become on of my favourite roles. Hope I can edit again soon.

Interviews MDA1300

The group; Paulina, Jorgen, Maliha, Francisco and myself, I was editor, as you can see, there was not a lot to edit.

With a boom

With the Lapel


This task was a little disappointing, again it was great learning how to use the mic's but as you can see we didn't use their full potential and made a rather boring interview (to say the lest).
What we should have done was have the camera move between the interviewer and the interviewee, going close up to Jorgen when he answered a particularly serious question.
In the first interview it was discussed that a much better background could have been used, with such a boring background the audience is drawn into boredom themselves thus making the interview a failure. This interview is also filmed at a rather strange angle and in a real interview the people in frame would have been moved a lot further away from the wall making sure there are no shadows caused unless of course this is the desired effect.
There are also problems with the sound, but for our first try at least there IS sound.
Its going to be good now that we can use sound properly in films, hopefully we will start making some good things this year!

Our Faust Presentation

Brendan's Fantastic Intro!



And our presentation including our story,

Faust Presentation

View more presentations from Lizzy Morey.

Production

For this weeks project I'll be working with; Francisco who has taken the role of Producer, Sofiane who is our Director, Claire who will be our Camera person and casting director, Adam our editor and myself who is sound and graphics for the opening titles.
After doing various projects this term I am starting to get used to working in a group, letting the director direct and learning what powers a producer has.
 We have chosen Sofiane's short story, which is why we think he'll be perfect as Director, he came up with the story and can see the film visually, of course we all have our own ideas and in pre production have all been working together to get the script down to perfection.
 Our Story;
Mary is a single parent trying to make ends meet, she has only one son aged 14 years old names Joseph. The week before Christmas Mary went to Westfield shopping centre with Joseph to Pick up her pay check as she works there as a toilet cleaner. As they walk through the mall there was a real sense of Christmas festive season in the air. There was an element of sadness is Joseph's face, his mother turned to him and asked him.
-What's wrong?
-Mum, everybody in my class has the video game FIFA, I really wish I could have it for Christmas.
His mother leant down to him and said,
-Joseph you know we can't afford it, look, mummy can't even afford to have a chain for the pendant that nana gave me, and you know how much this pendant means to me.
The boy looked down to the ground and nodded.
Mary didn't want to let her son down, so she decided to sell the pendant in order to afford the video game. On Christmas morning they couldn't wait to surprise each other, and indeed when they exchanged gifts the reaction on their faces was that of surprise
After they had explained to each other what they had done, they both began to cry, not because what they did was pointless, but because they realized how lucky they were to have each other.   

We've already had one week and have found available actors, the problem is that we have a perfect actress, but nobody to play Joseph, the best thing to do may be to replace Joseph with a female actor, but until that's done production has grown to a halt. 

We have also been having problems with the script because of this decision. Hopefully by tomorrow we will decide and then get back onto our feet, but from other productions it seems that we are further ahead that in previous projects. 

Realism

Mondays lesson was all about Poetic realism, we watched 'A day in the country' by Jean Reneor (the music is still stuck in my head) which showed us how french independent film varied from other French cinema of the time. 'A day in the country' was both beautiful to look at and interesting to watch, the middle-class family, father, mother, mother-in-law and daughter gave us, the audience something to relate to haven't we all had a holiday where our families have embarrass us? It reminded me of the TV series 'The Royal Family'. The elements of comedy from family conflicts were there but also (even in The Royal Family) a great sadness. Classing of class. In between humours scenes, in between the lines we know that the classes cannot mix in the society portrayed.
 In Thursday Lesson we looked at how Realism could be more grim, less poetic. Socialist realism came in 1932 from Russia, Eisenstiens 'The old and the new' is a story about how Machines take over mens jobs. Men are no longer needed in the fields. For some reason the men seem to be happy about this which tells me that this film isn't really realistic, but there are realism elements to the film, for instance the camera work of the men cutting the grass, the camera shows the pov of the scythe and then contrasting shots of the locust and the machine. It's beautiful the look at, the wind blowing on the grass makes it look like water and distracts from the reality that these men are going to loose their jobs. The problem with this film is that it had to be modified for the governments aproval, thus Eisenstiens vision's could be said to have been warped. In reality these men would not be smiling at the end of the film, in reality a machine probably wouldn't have taken their jobs. But this all adds up the making the film one of Socialist realism.
 After looking at Socialist realism we looked at Britain's influence on Realism in cinema, Social Realism is a strand of Realism that for me is easier to identify with, These films are gritty, real, films like 'This is England' where people talk how they would, real people are used, sometimes in the place of actors, theres a dark truth, things don't always end well.

Faust

In groups of 4 we we're told to research our character, Faust. We looked into the characters origins, artistic representation, political readings, cultural importance and charactrs, artistic works influenced by Faust and then told to make a presentation for the class about Faust and then giving a pitch for our own Faust film.
In our versions Faust was to be a modern character, so we made him a business man from Oxford named Frost.
 The changes we made to our character were to get Faust to fit in with the everyman. The modern world.
Faust is a character that has lasted because his story sends a strong message. The choices Faust makes due to his greed and hunger for power and knowledge send him to his doom. I'm sure all of us as humans sometimes feel like Faust, like the world is out to get us 'if I only had their contacts'. Life is unfair, making excuses about things you cannot help. Instead of making you're own path, you let life happen to you. So by giving Faust a miserable end it tells people the way not to think. Live life with a positive attitude.
 Our story keeps this message, Faust becomes a successful businessman but then dies of a heart attack from the outcome of his success. He drinks, he sleeps around, he party's to hard. He enjoys life too much, he does not work hard for the things he gets. Power kills him.

These images show Faust either making his pact with the Devil or summoning Mephistopheles the devils servant.

VFX Workshop

Today was the 1st of 2 visual effects workshops. Using Blender (2.60) we learnt how to make a 3D shape and then how in place the 3D shape into film, for instance we might want to add robots or statues to our films, or place our characters in a setting which they are not really in.

Blender will be useful in making films where special effects are too hard or costly.
Simple things to remember from the workshop are the keys;

0= Camera view
1= Front view
7= Top view
3= Right view

XYZ = RGB meaning RGB move the axes XYZ.

There are plenty of videos to watch on youtube for help on the program and the best thing is that its free to download! Although the Hollywood pros use Maya (a costly alternative) Blender is pretty easy to use and is fun to experiment with.
We we're also given some good websites with free footage to experiment on, Hollywoodcamerawork.co.uk which is a free website where amateurs upload their work for others to play with.

Overall Blender is a fun program and I enjoyed the session a lot! Can't wait to start using blender in my films.

I'll leave you with the start image from Blender, a simple cube to experiment on.

Story Boarding, From Books to the Screen

In Production class this week we looked at how a director might take a book, a piece of text and adapt it for the screen, in this case we looked at an extract from The Big Sleep, Novel by Raymond Chandler film by Howard Hanks.
We looked at the very first scene of the film/book and given an hour to make our own story boards. Then we looked at how Hanks had changed the scene so that it was appropriate for the film, which bits he left out, which bits he needed to keep in and bits that he dramatised.
For instance he took out the description of the outside of the house, such as the garage and descriptions of the inside, the stain glass window and the cherub fireplace. They are not needed, instead we have Marlowe look at a family crest which gives more significance to the family he is about to meet.
Hanks also changes Miss Sternwoods action and clothing, making her more promiscuous, in the book she comes from a room under the stairs and in the film Hanks has her come down the stairs, a couple of people in class did the same change, explaining that if she came down the stairs we can start of by seeing he legs making her more sexualised and attractive for Marlowes character. Hanks also gives her a skirt instead of trousers feminising her and again giving her more of an appeal to Marlowe. In the novel we can hear what Marlowe is thinking, however in the film the audience needs to be shown the appeal of Sternwoods because they are not given that first person intimacy that the book offers.  
Story boarding is very useful in film making as when a director makes the storyboard the rest of the crew (especially the cameramen/ cinematographers) can see exactly what shot the director wants and it means that the shoot is set out specifically and that when it comes to shooting there will be no questions as to where the camera should be positioned causing time wasting.
I found the exercise very interesting and fun and it also helped me understand why directors cut out certain bits from books and the choices they make in adding scenes or even little details into their movies.

Excalibur 1981

John Boorman clearly is a very visual director, concentrating on the aesthetics and mise on scene of the film rather than the story and characters.
The Story of Excalibur and Arthur, king of the round table follow closely to the rules of The hero with a thousand faces. Arthur of course is the hero who becomes king because of the things surrounding him, he really has no input into the matter, he is born into his character, so he becomes King. Merlin is introduced, as the helper or guide, Arthur is separated from his family, his brother and father, then takes over the kingdom.
The film goes on like this and it gives the audience a sense of reassurance, we know this story.
Arthur is tested over and over again; must defeat Lancelot, get the bride, find the grail and defeat his evil incest son.
Because of the films structure it was easy to place people in certain roles according to The Heroes Journey. However for me the Characters motives were sometimes unclear, Lancelot fort for Guinevere, to protect her innocence but then they ended up committing the very crime they had denied. Merlin seemed to turn up in random places and it was unclear why sometimes he could use magic and other he could not, thus letting Morgana take over. If they had all been a bit more careful and controlled non the bad stuff would of happened. But then there would be no film.
The film is visually interesting, There is always a lot to look at and especially towards the end the movie which becomes very dark, the mise en scene reflects the dark themes of the film with fog and quite haunting images such as the unfortunate knights that end up as bird food hanging from trees.
The costumes too are something to take note of, especially Morgana's. Her clothes become more and more elaborate as she increases in power (not to mention more revealing).
But again the costumes could become confusing as with the knights, all wearing knights costumes of course, which at times made it hard to tell who was who! Especially when most of them had beards!
Overall the film was very exciting and interesting to watch, and bearing in mind the film was made in the early 80's it was a good watch and I would love to watch more films by Boorman.

Three Point Lighting

Here is a simple image of the three point lighting system. 

You have your Key light which lights the subject/s with the Fill light creating depth and the backing light separating the actor/tress from the background. 

Although lighting creates a lot of problems, Shadows can be controlled, but with a lot of difficulty. Lighting is used to create depth, to create an illusion, to let the audience know what time of day or even year it is. 

Having the Key light and the Fill light cross can create multiple shadows and if the actor has two shadows this can make the shot look fake, set like. Simple things like bringing the subject further away from the wall can hide the shadows. 

Lights can also be used to create emotion in a character. 

Today we looked at paintings from the famous artists Rembrandt and Vermeer, two artists which use light to create shadows and depth to their subjects. 

The two are referenced in film making today and their work has influenced lighting in many films. 

Of course there are many other techniques other than the 3 point lighting but this is one that is simple and effective. 

Silent to Sound

1927, Sound hits the big screen for the first time in The Jazz Singer, Alan Crosland directs Al Jolson pursuing his dream of becoming a Jazz Singer.
Of course the Sound isn't of the standard we are used to today, it was still a massive break through in cinema history that would change the way films were made forever.
The Silent era would eventually come to an end, people like Chaplin and Keaton had to change their styles.
Thats not to say Chaplin wasn't successful after the progression of sound, but there were many more silent directors/actors who were not cut out for sound.
Sound came with other problems, directors now had to incorporate microphones into their movies, how would they be put out of shot, how would the actors move around the set. They had to use actors with accents that could be easily understood by an audience and actually make sure the dialogue fitted the movement.
Hitchcock's Blackmail 1929 dubs its actress and dubbing was a big way of getting around most of sounds problems.  Blackmail was only two years after the Jazz singer and yet the progression is great, we go from songs to straight dialogue, but it would be a long time until sound became as natural as it is today.
A great example we were shown in class of the difficulties sound posed is Singin' in the Rain which directly humours the problems. We have the actors becoming frustrated with the microphones and the director becoming frustrated with them, the loop goes on and then we are shown the finished product, which ends up disastrous because of sound.
In class we have had our own difficulties with sound, positioning the actors so that they share a mic or picking up unwanted sound, if we film indoors we can get an echo, but there are ways to over come these problems, just as they were overcome when sound was first introduced.

The Decameron 1971

Pier Paolo Pasolini's film The Decameron is a series of short stories from Bocaccio's "Decameron".
Most of the Stories have been adapted for the screen, In MDA1800 we discussed how the story of the Lisabetta who planted her dead lovers head in a basil plant was changed for the screen.
Pasolini changes the ending of the story, in the real version she dies, her brothers find the head and that's the end of the story. However in the film we are left with her tenderly looking after the plant as if things could be okay for her once more. This gives the audience a completely different view of the story, they could be left wanting more, wondering if the sister will ever move on. If Pasolini had decided to keep the original ending her death would leave the story closed, the audience doesn't need to think about it any more. There are other changes he makes too, such as the discovery of the Lisabettas affair by one of her brothers. In the film he is sleeping with a woman just as she is sleeping with Lorenzo, This makes the brother look hypocritical, the audience can see the sexism of that time and relate to Lisabetta as she is abused by her brothers. Another interesting addition is the reaction of one of the other brothers, When he is told of his sisters affair his reaction is over the top to say the least. In class we discussed how this could either be because he is in love with the sister or even Lorenzo. It all adds to the story becoming about sexual double standards rather than that of love and lose.
The other stories in the Decameron all carry the same messages, Sex seams to defeat all other interests, even Religion.     

Delicatessen 1991

Delicatessen is a post apocalyptic film about an eccentric household struggling to get by (Who also happen to be a bit cannibalistic). It is a Black comedy by Jean Pierre Jeunet and in my opinion one of his finest films.
I have chosen a comical sequence between two characters who don't really relate in much of the rest of the film, but in this dance-like scene the characters come together naturally to create a scene which helps develop the comic side of the film and prevents it from becoming a depressing film about struggle.
There are 12 shots in this short scene lasting for 1 minute and 54 seconds, making the scene quite short, but Jeunet keeps the sequence rhythmic by adding music and acting which correlate.
The scene starts of with shots that last from 5 seconds to 8 seconds and uses these as introductions. Although the scene is in French the audience needs hardly any dialogue to read the film, Louison enters to fix the bed springs and is greeted by Plusse. From shots 3 to 7 we have parallel shots between the two characters and this allows the audience to view both characters actions and get a feel for the room, we know where things are, we can see that the music is coming from the TV, it all builds up to the comical dance scene that is about to come.
The bed scene itself is between 13 seconds and 20 seconds, these shots are longer and wider to allow us to see the movement between the characters, they bounce on the bed and its funny, its in time to the music and in some ways the audience wants to bounce along with them, because its funny, because of the timing simply because we want to join in. Jeunet has made us fond of Louison and we want to join in with his games.
Its also amusing because of the sexual nature of the scene (or the lack of sex in the scene) We know that the bed is squeaky from other scene where the bed has been used for Sex, but in this case the bed is not, it is simple and childlike, the sound reminds us of the sex but here innocents replaces it and it is almost ironic. He uses a lot of two shots, straight angles of the characters which makes the scene even more comical, the camera moves with them, making the audience move with them.
I think really its the timing that makes this scene so funny to watch, there's something quite artistic about it, in this grim world they live in we have this happy little scene which makes everything okay again, and Jeunet does this over and over again within the film.   

Here is a link to the wonderful scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke4Ua_mFfZ8&feature=related

10 second film in one shot (fail)

Unfortunately we failed the task, Had there been less action, or no action at all we may have passed, a story can be anything, a shot of a clock, some toilet, anything we don't have to try and do anything elaborate to make a film, in other words; keep it simple.

Here's another film we made, which would have passed;



For our first project this was good fun to get started with the cameras, learning how to focus properly and even getting to know how to work in a group, it was interesting also to get feedback for the first time from our tutors and especially our peers.

East of Eden 1955

East of Eden is a film about relationships, love and the difference between good and evil. Throughout the film we constantly question the meaning of 'Bad'. What is bad? The word is used a lot by Cal, a character based on Cain from the Biblical Story Cain and Abel, a tale of two brother, sons of Adam and Eve who compete for the love of God, much like Cal and Aron's relationship with their father.
Cal struggles to understand why his father loves Aron so much more than him and so rebels coursing those around him to think him evil and 'bad'. Cal's intentions often are not bad however the way he does things are bad, the money he gets from his mother is from a Brothel and the money he makes is from profits from war, but Cal's intentions are pure and good. So does that make Cal good?
It is interesting to see the character development of Cal, at the start of the film Cal is a rebel, Everything he does is wrong but by the end of the film Cal becomes almost saint like, looking after his father in his sick bed. Whereas Aron changes to a complete opposite, starts out good and saint like, he can do no wrong, but by the end of the film Aron becomes something completely different, unrecognizable to his father. Its as if in order for Cal to become good Aron must become bad. The father can only choose one son to love the most. This theme is often repeated in biblical story's and story's from other cultures, such as Joseph being the favorite son of Jacob.
It is not only the love of their father that the brothers are competing over, it is also the love of a woman, Abra. As Cal and Aron changed and almost swap roles and personality's Abra changes her feelings for the brothers, Much like the father does. Throughout the film Abra acts as a confident for Cal which is exactly what causes Aron's downfall, Abra and the discovery that his mother is alive (and running a brothel) turn him mad. He seems possessed.
The film leaves us still questioning good and bad. Is Cal is good now, what happens to Aron? Is he to die at war? Had Cal turned good for good?

JVC GY-HM100 pro HD Camcorder

A brief overview of the Camcorder we will be using throughout the years! There are loads of other things I need to know but hopefully I will pick this up with practice.

Some examples of the microphones we will be using in our projects;

Lapel mic attaches to persons top, under the clothes so the wire is hidden and just the mic is seen.
The Lapel is good for interviews, or movies where the camera is at a long distance and the characters are too far away for a boom.
One end of the Lapel is attached to a transmitter which then transmits the audio to the camera via a receiver attached to the top of the camera.

Directional Mic (Can be a Boom, or attached to the camera as long as it is a long and facing in the direction of the audio)
The Direction mic is used to pin point audio, it picks up the sound that is directed into the mic. So again this is good for interviews and talk shows where the sound can be controlled easily.
Usually with a boom a sound tec holds the Boom up throughout the scene, however if there is no need for movement the boom can be set up to be self standing.
The covers on the mics are called wind shields (because it protects the microphones from the wind)

The controls for the audio input are on the top of the camera when the microphone has been attached.
When using this on the Camera you have to turn off the Cameras own in camera mic and then make sure all the settings are correct. Even if you can hear the audio through a headset if the controls are not correct the camera will not pick up the sound.
The controls on the right are to make sure the camera does not pick up too much sound, you must make sure the sound is not too hot, and if it is it can be adjusted there.

Modern Times 1936

Charlie Chaplins Modern Times is a comedy, but there are many important messages that Chaplin is telling the audience about life during the 30's in america.
1930s America was the start of the depression. Americans were out of work and when they did get work it was hard and often not enough to support their family's. This is reflected a lot in Modern times, there are the obvious things such as the heroins father being out of work and rioting and then more subtle references such as Chaplins character enjoying life in Prison more than the outside world, we understand that not only is Chaplin getting fed in prison but also has the safety of his cell. We understand why Chaplin is so reluctant to stay and although in the film it is a comical aspect it gives us something to think about the 30s in America.
Chaplin even explicitly makes fun of the American Dream, this idea that if you worked hard enough you could build yourself a home and have the perfect family, The tramp and Paulette Goddard's characters watch eagerly as the 'perfect couple' say goodbye to each other. The Tramp says the line "We'll get a home even if we have to work for it". But by this he doesn't mean the kind of work that pays like a job, because there are no jobs, they have to resort to stealing. This is amusing in the film, but also moves us as we know, as did American audiences when the film was realised that this is a realistic approach to being able to survive. Its what makes Modern times more meaningful that just a comedy, its a story about hard work, no matter how hard you work or try you still cant reach that dream. In a way its extremely tragic and we are left with wondering what will happen to the couple. Could the tramp end up like the father? Will they get caught by the police? We are left unknown, much like the Americans were when they could not get jobs, what was their fate?
Chaplin was giving us more than just a comedy when he wrote and directed Modern Times.   

The first of many

Filmy Film is a Blog focused on my 3 year Film course at Middlesex University, it will include posts about the course, what I'v learnt and how I'v interpreted lectures, seminars and of course films.

I'll also include posts about films from outside of class and any of my own projects.  Can't wait to get started! Wish me luck ;)