It was vital we produced a contingency plan prior to the shooting of our film to identify any problems we may come across and are able to solve them effectively ensuring we stuck to the deadline. As we had both had experience of creating a plan during our BTEC course last year we had an idea of where to start and what needed to be included. There were also text books which we used to help us remember the general layout and content.
We came up with two separate plans initially, listing problems we may come across and suggestions of what we would do if we came up against a specific problem. For example, we were worried that the video camera would not clearly pick up the sound of the actors talking. An idea to overcome this problem was to check the footage after the first piece of filming and make sure all the actors spoke clearly. Once we had completed our separate lists we brought them together and talked about what we had come up with. This was important to carry out as Beth came up with ideas that I hadn't thought of and vice versa.
This is a copy of an initial contingency plan we came up with initially:
Problems included use and responsibility of cameras, lighting and sound problems as well as getting all of the actors together in one place at the same time.
On the day of filming we took the contingency plan to the location in an attempt to allow the filming to run smoothly as we only had a limited amount of time due to our actors other commitments and our own deadline. Although it looks very basic it was useful on the day of filming and kept us on track and luckily it helped us overcome some problems. For example, the lighting wasn't great inside the house at our location as it was dark outside. To solve this I added some more lamps around the room. Although it still was not the perfect solution it worked to an extent and in turn made our short film appear better and more professional.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
The Scipt & Shooting Script
This is a copy of our develped script. It took a few weeks to create and perfect, writing then re writing bits that we thought would be better changed. Beth carried out the majority of work on the script as this is the area of work she would like to work in, we both however contributed in generating ideas.
Before we began creating our shooting script we did a little research on why it was important to create and what needed to be included. We recieved a worksheet of the teacher showing us what should be included.
This is a copy of our shooting script, created once our actual script was complete. It was vital to create so we could take it with us to the venue, knowing all of the desired camera angles and movements. As the computers were not available in this lesson we created the shooting script on paper. We split the page in half, placing 'audio' on the left side and 'visual' on the right. On the left side we cut and placed the speech from the scrip and on the right, with our storyboards as a
guideline, we wrote what will be on the screen and the angle/movement of the camera.
Before we began creating our shooting script we did a little research on why it was important to create and what needed to be included. We recieved a worksheet of the teacher showing us what should be included.
This is a copy of our shooting script, created once our actual script was complete. It was vital to create so we could take it with us to the venue, knowing all of the desired camera angles and movements. As the computers were not available in this lesson we created the shooting script on paper. We split the page in half, placing 'audio' on the left side and 'visual' on the right. On the left side we cut and placed the speech from the scrip and on the right, with our storyboards as a
guideline, we wrote what will be on the screen and the angle/movement of the camera.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Mockumentary Research
To get a good idea of the conventions required for a mockumentary, as well as the internet we each watched a mockumentary and took notes. I chose to look at the office, a popular and well known British sitcom/comedy/mockumentary with a number of series, each with a number of episodes.
I produced a table to make my notes on so I cut jot bits down as I watched and scanned it in. I looked at the first episode from the first series of the office, 'Down Size'. This mockumentry is in the form of a television series and is based around the day to day running of an office in Slough (UK.
As I wanted to gain extra ideas and compare conventions I also watched Drop Dead Gorgeous, the mockumentary Beth looked at. The film was based on the contestants of a beauty pageant, filming the fierce competition and lengths they will go to to win. My notes are much more basic than the ones I took down for The Office as that was the one we decided I should annotate.
Camera
Actors are aware cameras are there (most of the time!)
When characters are interviewed by the crew they are either looking slightly to the side of the camera or right into the lens
Point of View shots
Establishing shot at the beginning
Hand held camera – out of focus & shaky at times
Actors looking directly into the camera lens, right at the audience
Zooms & Depth of Field used frequently
Mise en Scene
Set all over the place, however the main setting is a school (natural)
Acting is over exaggerated – false at times
Natural lighting, make and costume up to fit the situation
Props to hand if characters need them – also very natural
Editing
Messy/sharp cuts
Texts at the bottom of the screen, introducing characters like in a documentary
Some non scripted moments are included in the final film
Sound
Crew talking behind the camera
Sometimes awkward moments
Mainly diagetic sound
Bridges between scenes
The analysis of current mockumentaries already out was vital so we knew what we had to include in our own. As we looked at two we were able to easily compare and work out conventions which allow the audience to identify the genre. We took into consideration that our research may be limited as we only looked at 2 mockumentaries in detail however we believe we received enough analysis back to be able to create our own and make it successful. We noticed that the camera work used in both mockumentaries was similar and established the genre. The crew talked behind the camera and it was often handheld, looking shaky and therefore more realistic. The actors were also aware a lot of the time that the cameras were there so looked directly into the lens (when being interviewed for example) or past the camera towards the crew. The editing was similar in the way that some cuts were messy and sometimes not stuck together chronologically. As well as this we noticed that in both mockumentaries text was written at the bottom of the screen, documentary style, showing who is talking, where they are/who they are and even a time or date. The majority of sound in the two mockumentaries we looked at was diegetic, meaning that the characters as well as the audience could hear it. There were however a few bridges with music where time had passed or the scene changed. A convention that I personally had not thought about but picked up in the analysis was the lack of sound between characters, indicating realistic awkward moments. Mise en scene was mainly natural, like the lighting, costume and setting for example. We did notice the obvious over exaggerated acting however which is used to distinguish the mockumentary genre. We plan to take all of these conventions into account when coming up with our script.
I produced a table to make my notes on so I cut jot bits down as I watched and scanned it in. I looked at the first episode from the first series of the office, 'Down Size'. This mockumentry is in the form of a television series and is based around the day to day running of an office in Slough (UK.
As I wanted to gain extra ideas and compare conventions I also watched Drop Dead Gorgeous, the mockumentary Beth looked at. The film was based on the contestants of a beauty pageant, filming the fierce competition and lengths they will go to to win. My notes are much more basic than the ones I took down for The Office as that was the one we decided I should annotate.
Camera
Actors are aware cameras are there (most of the time!)
When characters are interviewed by the crew they are either looking slightly to the side of the camera or right into the lens
Point of View shots
Establishing shot at the beginning
Hand held camera – out of focus & shaky at times
Actors looking directly into the camera lens, right at the audience
Zooms & Depth of Field used frequently
Mise en Scene
Set all over the place, however the main setting is a school (natural)
Acting is over exaggerated – false at times
Natural lighting, make and costume up to fit the situation
Props to hand if characters need them – also very natural
Editing
Messy/sharp cuts
Texts at the bottom of the screen, introducing characters like in a documentary
Some non scripted moments are included in the final film
Sound
Crew talking behind the camera
Sometimes awkward moments
Mainly diagetic sound
Bridges between scenes
The analysis of current mockumentaries already out was vital so we knew what we had to include in our own. As we looked at two we were able to easily compare and work out conventions which allow the audience to identify the genre. We took into consideration that our research may be limited as we only looked at 2 mockumentaries in detail however we believe we received enough analysis back to be able to create our own and make it successful. We noticed that the camera work used in both mockumentaries was similar and established the genre. The crew talked behind the camera and it was often handheld, looking shaky and therefore more realistic. The actors were also aware a lot of the time that the cameras were there so looked directly into the lens (when being interviewed for example) or past the camera towards the crew. The editing was similar in the way that some cuts were messy and sometimes not stuck together chronologically. As well as this we noticed that in both mockumentaries text was written at the bottom of the screen, documentary style, showing who is talking, where they are/who they are and even a time or date. The majority of sound in the two mockumentaries we looked at was diegetic, meaning that the characters as well as the audience could hear it. There were however a few bridges with music where time had passed or the scene changed. A convention that I personally had not thought about but picked up in the analysis was the lack of sound between characters, indicating realistic awkward moments. Mise en scene was mainly natural, like the lighting, costume and setting for example. We did notice the obvious over exaggerated acting however which is used to distinguish the mockumentary genre. We plan to take all of these conventions into account when coming up with our script.
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