Planning Main Task Idea

Today is Friday's media lesson and Dulcie isn't here once again!! She hasn't text us to let us know with a reason or she hasn't notified the college either.
Tim also isn't here yet, but he did text Lainey saying "Lainey probably gonna be late, fell over on the ice when i was walking to the bus so just chillin here for a bit, will be in by 11.45, sorry but give me a text if you wanna run something past me sorry's x x"

So, whilst waiting for Tim to arrive Lainey and i are going over our final idea , which is group of teenager's camping in the woods, having a party, smoking and drinking with load music, but then they are all slaughtered. We have based an idea on the Blair Witch Project, where the camera is in someones hand and they are running, so all you see is the surroundings and their heavy breathing. You won't see anybody dying because that gives away too much of the plot.

Having a chat with Eno, he suggested that our idea needed to be more contrived, stylised. Otherwise it would of come across amateurish.

Richard all so suggested that we need to cut between these sort of shots with another contrasting style of shots. For Example:

- Making a picnic or packing a bag for the camping trip.
- Meeting up with each other.
- Loading the car with the camping gear.
- The Killer's normal daily life, like shopping, or their boring job.

These are all good idea's, so we are waiting for Tim to get here soon, so we can consult Tim.

Wednesdays lesson.

On wednesdays lesson we were all present, this gave us a final chance to choose a final idea. so, we decided to choose a completely different idea.
We thought about some horror/thrilla films we liked watching and the plotline behind them. We liked the idea of a 'Teenage Slasher Film', like Scream, but in the woods, like The Blair Witch Project and shrooms.

We then disscused about the types of scene and what plots we were going to use.
so we decided on the Wednesday of the first week of the Christmas Holdiays we would meet up and start shooting footage. Doing it this early will give us the chance to re-capture and shoot our footage, just in case its wrong or needs editing.

We all decided unanimously this was good and achieveable, so this is the idea we are going with. Now we can start properly planning and producing a story board!

Main task potential idea

Today, Dulcie isn't here again. She has text us to let us know that she may have eaten something funny the previous night an woke up ill. so can't make it in today.

So after Tim Lainey and i thought about our final idea's we managed to narrow it down to two.
- The abused child.
- The fatal school bus crash.

but in today's lesson we all caught up on our blogs as we haven't in a while. However Dulcie is very behind.
So next lesson is Monday's lesson and Dulcie should be here so we can run the final idea's past her an get planning.

introduction to the Main Task

On Monday's Media lesson, we had an introduction to the Main Task. This is the brief:

Main task:

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

On Monday Tim wasn't here due to a personal reason and we just don't know were Dulcie got to.
So, after our introduction, me and Alice pitched some idea's. We cam up with 3 good ones:

- An old house being haunted by a ghost.
- A child being abused by her step-dad.
- A school bus fatally crashing, the driver is haunted by the ghosts of the children.

We ran these idea's past Tim and Dulcie on Wednesday's lesson, and we all liked them. We are yet to choose an idea that is achieveable.

End of Preliminary task

It has now come to the end of the preliminary task so any incomplete work we will have to complete in our own time. Friday's lesson was our deadline.

We are now going to start on our Main Task.

Friday' s Media Lesson

On Friday's media lesson i was no here due to complications, i did let Tim and Lainey know.
So from what i heard they both got on with the footage, worked fast and well with each other. Although it was a shame that Dulcie and i was not here to have input with our own idea's. Personally i think if their was 4 of us around a computer not as much work would have been done and less focus.

Capturing out shots

On Wednesday's lesson we were yet stuck with another unusable camera. However we did manage to work around this and not waste our lesson time which was valuable.
Again Dulcie wasn't here so me Tim and Lainey logged the shots onto the computer by writing down the times of footage that we needed. This would save us time for when we had a camera that worked. We then Captured the shots. This didn't take no time at all as we got on with it. we all did think that we would have to stay behind in our free time to complete it however as we worked so well there was no need for this.
So Dulcie's let us know that she will be present tomorrow so hopefully our first draft will be complete.

Mondays media lesson

Today's media lesson was a complete waist of time. We didn't make any progress, but we did have a tutorial lesson in how to use the editing programme. Tomorrows lesson should improve as we have logged out shots and just need to capture them.
We couldn't do this yesterday as we ended up with a dogey camera that didn't work correctly and there was no spare. This annoyed us !
So hopefully all 4 group members will be present tomorrow and we wont get another dogey camra.
A productive lesson.We will need to spend more than lesson time on this piece of coursework, because the class is aiming to have it finished by Friday's lesson, which won't happen unless we get sorted tomorrow and FOCUS. Which we will do.

Re-Shooting the Footage

This was the first time i had seen the acting of Dulcie and Tim's work and i was impressed. However Eno wasn't happy with the standard of it and thought we could achieved better. So this meant that we had to re-shoot our footage.

He said this was down to the over the shoulder shot wasn't correct as there was to much head space at the top of the frame.

We re-shot this footage with the help of me helping Lainey with the camera movements whilst Dulcie and Tim concentrated on the acting. This had taken us approximately 40minuets to re-shoot, this included finding a new classroom to re-shoot with permission and reading over the script to recap.

The Filming is defiantly better and has improved a lot but there are still some improvements that we could make.
From reno pointing out the mistakes it has made a lot of us understand the consequences of how important it is shooting. This will help us in the future with further filming.

All of our group were here today, and so we all worked together to complete the coursework. We worked quite fast and i am happy with today's lesson. This now meant we all had an input to improving the shooting and acting.

Filming

On Wednesday the 18th i wasn't present at college due to being ill. However i text the group letting them know and apologizing. They said they were fine with this but have to work around it.

So as i was ment to play one of the characters Dulcie took my place. I was totaly fine with this as it was my fault i wasnt here.
Lainey and Tim on the other hand explained to me the idea's from the scrpit and the acting of our perliminary task. They used an empty classroom ( with permission ) to film the shot. Both Tim and Dulice helped Lainey with the camra movements as she was'nt acting. This made it more correct as it was a group dissions.

From what i have heard the lesson went well and they managed to get a good shot with working well as a group.
From what i have seen on the tap they had a good laugh filming but whilst getting the work done. The tap was good and i was inpressed with the progress they had made in the lesson.

Tim has played his character really well and we are all glad that he was the actor for that character. Dulcie we were very impressed with as she played the stroppy school girl, and played it well. overal this really helped our group in the acting part.

Communication

Today is the 18th of November and i wasn't able to make it to my media lesson as having my operation on the 13thnovember has caused absent days to college. However i am aware of whats going on and up to date with the coursework, also always up-dating my blog in my spare time.

I i text Lainey and Tim this morning to let them know that i wouldn't be in and sorry for any interruptions to me being absent or for any problems that i have caused as it was our filming day. I hoped they understood this and went ahead.
They said they would keep me up-dated to the news and inform me about what happen in today's lesson, also saying get well soon.
any further information i will be up dated straight away.
Cant wait for Friday's lesson.

Storyboard planning

In our media class Monday which was the 16/11/09 all 4 of us in the group where present. This gave us a chance to all catch up on our blogs, made the lesson more relaxing and to run over all our final ideas and complete our story board before filming. In that lesson we discussed what roles people will be playing and who's filming. In conclusion to that Tim and i have the part roles as we were best suited to them. Lainey and Dulcie are behind the scenes filming and editing.

We have now planned and arranged times and dates for our filming to begin. We will be starting it on the 18/11/09 in Wednesday's lesson and then we have Thursday to complete any editing that needs to have changes or it just gives us extra time if somethings go wrong. This then gives us Friday lesson to have it complete and start learning how to use the editing program. I cant wait to see what the sequence looks like at the end, should be good !

match on action

Match-On-Action Shots are used in media to ensure that Continuity is used throughout the whole footage. Match-On-Action also has to stick to the 180° Rule so the audience doesn't get confuse. These shots may have been shot hours/days apart, but with the right editing, they follow continuously, which does not confuse the audience. The rhythm and timing must match between the two shots. For example, if a character walks off screen left in one shot, walking slowly and peacefully; shot two should be of the character entering from screen right, also walking slowly and peacefully so connect the shots. This is a good Match-On-Action shot, as opposed to shot two having the person enter from screen left running and panicked. This is not a Match-On-Action, and does not demonstrate Continuity, so would confuse the audience.
This is an example of a Match-On-Action.

communication

Unforchanily i missed last lesson as i had a doctors appointmen, however i text lainey and told her the information which she was fine about.
However as i am here today i also found out that Tim was ill friday so he wasnt albe to make it
so lainey and dulice who were here has discused about the final idea and helped dulice get up to date with the lessons she has missed due to being very ill.

Anaylsis of Reverse shot

The example below starts out with an establishing shot of the office building and then it cuts to a shot of Both Chandler and his boss in the same frame. It is a Long Shot as it allows you to know with the characters. Just before Chandler stops talking, it cuts to a closer shot of his boss. From then on, it cuts to each of the characters a fraction of a second before they start talking, and then to a Reaction Shot on Chandler. More dialogue is exchanged and then it cuts to an Over-The-Shoulder shot to Chandler, showing his reaction.

I think this shot works because the editing shows continuity by showing us the characters that are speaking and then their reactions, whilst the camera cuts steadily closer to their faces at the centre point of the dialogue, only to cut back out again when the conversation is starting to end. I think this example is good because it shows Shot-Reverse-Shot, whilst exampling other shot types, all the while maintaining Continuity.

This is an example of a Shot-Reverse-Shot.

Analysis of 180° rule.

The 180 rule.
The Rule is used so the audience do not get confused about the characters and where they are stood etc. This example shows how the camera stays on one side of the characters, keeping the same characters on the same side of the screen, even though the camera cuts to a different angle.
This is an important, simple rule which isn't obvious, yet would hold some footage together in order for it to make sense. If editors and directors didn't stick to the 180° Rule, the audience would notice immediately and rightly be confused.

This is an example of the 180° Rule:

Protential preliminary task idea

Tim and Lainey have decided after a lengthy phone conversation last night that their previous idea of 2 people meeting on a street corner cannot be done because the scenery lacks an essential part of the task; a character opening a door.

Instead, they ran through some idea's on the phone and decided the most practical would be to shoot the task at the college. We have the idea of a student-teacher conference taking place in an unused classroom at the college. This idea of using the classroom (with permission) gives us the scenery needed to shoot the piece.
The characters can walk through the door and sit down opposite each other to exchange some dialogue regarding the students progress. I was informed about this new idea on the 11/11/2009 and we all think this is a good idea because we will be able to utilise our knowledge of the required shots needed for the Preliminary Task.

However Tim and Lainey were unable to contact Dulcie and i on the 10/11/2009 so they still needed to put this idea past us.

Lainey Posted :
We believe that it is good, achievable idea that needs to be decided on as a group. We are hoping to see Dulcie and Alice soon so that we can negotiate times that we are free during college to shoot the footage as members of the group live too far away to be expected to stay locally and complete the Task; as transport there and back is not feasible, nor is the time. It is unfair to put any members of the group out and make the task unnecessarily difficult for them, so Tim and I think college time is the most suitable for all 4 members of the group.
Posted by Lainey White at 12:22

Communication with the group

I was ill on the 6/11/2009 and unfortunately missed media. However i received and email and text message both from Tim and Lainey to tell me the latest task and to catch up of my blog. They also emailed Dulcie as she was away too.

The email i received was:

Hi Alice and Dulcie.Why aren't you in Media today?We were sorting out groups and our group is, you two, me, and Tim.We have been updating our blogs too, and we have done quite a bit, so you will have to catch up with that, possibly in your own time. Me and Tim have also got quite a few good ideas for the coursework. check out our blogs.My URL is: http://laineywhite.blogspot.com/Tim's is: http://mrtimbiles.blogspot.com/Look at the posts we have done and do the same basically. Just add your own idea's.BE IN THE NEXT MEDIA LESSON!!

This helped me as i caught up in my own time by referring to their blogs.

we have recently got into groups of 3 and 4. In my group there is Lainey White, Tim Biles and Dulcie Hayward. I choose these people people because i feel that they all have a different strength in media so when we all have our input all out idea's will be strong. Yet we all have a sense of humor so this will be a fun and well expressed task.

I have thought of a couple of idea's for the group to look at, although i know these idea's will not defiantly be final as it is a group decision and everyone else will have an input towards it.
My idea's are

1. 2 people in a cafe,restaurant or pub having an award date.
2. a friendly catch up, find out something interesting

Introduction to preliminary task

Today was our first lesson on preliminary.


Preliminary exercise : filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character. Then a couple of lines of dialogue is said. Match on action, 180 degree rule used.

Today we studied the scene in the cafe from 'Heat'. Here it is: