The Party Characters...
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Saturday, 17 November 2012
My Short Film Genre
In a previous post I described the various short film genres, and said that I wanted to cross a number of genres with my film.
I am interested in making a humorous film, with a dramatic and romantic theme, but I want to be experimental. I have therefore decided to make a silent film.
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, mime and title cards.
The main elements of a silent film are:
Intertitles: Because silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreen intertitles were used to tell the story, the show the main dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the cinema audience.
Music: Showings of silent films almost always featured live music, usually a pianist, as they progressed music was added later to the films. The music can help to develop atmosphere, either tension or romance etc.
Acting Technique: Silent film actors emphasized body language and facial expression so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic or eccentric.
Projection Speed: Until the standardization of the projection speed of 24 frames per second (fps) for sound films between 1926 and 1930, silent films were shot at variable speeds anywhere from 12 to 26 fps.
Tinting: With the lack of natural color processing available, films of the silent era were frequently dipped in dyestuffs and dyed various shades to signal a mood or represent a time of day. Blue represented night scenes, yellow or amber meant day.
Have a look at this trailer for The Artist the winner of Best Film Oscar 2012:
This film follows the conventions above, there are intertitles, the acting is over the top, the music is very important in determining the mood, and there is a slight tint to the film. So it fits with the genre perfectly.
My film will follow these genre guidelines, I want to make sure that I follow these guidelines and remember some basic rules of short film making:
I am interested in making a humorous film, with a dramatic and romantic theme, but I want to be experimental. I have therefore decided to make a silent film.
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, mime and title cards.
The main elements of a silent film are:
Intertitles: Because silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreen intertitles were used to tell the story, the show the main dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the cinema audience.
Music: Showings of silent films almost always featured live music, usually a pianist, as they progressed music was added later to the films. The music can help to develop atmosphere, either tension or romance etc.
Acting Technique: Silent film actors emphasized body language and facial expression so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic or eccentric.
Projection Speed: Until the standardization of the projection speed of 24 frames per second (fps) for sound films between 1926 and 1930, silent films were shot at variable speeds anywhere from 12 to 26 fps.
Tinting: With the lack of natural color processing available, films of the silent era were frequently dipped in dyestuffs and dyed various shades to signal a mood or represent a time of day. Blue represented night scenes, yellow or amber meant day.
Have a look at this trailer for The Artist the winner of Best Film Oscar 2012:
This film follows the conventions above, there are intertitles, the acting is over the top, the music is very important in determining the mood, and there is a slight tint to the film. So it fits with the genre perfectly.
My film will follow these genre guidelines, I want to make sure that I follow these guidelines and remember some basic rules of short film making:
·
The
simplicity, clarity and economy of the storytelling
· The vision of the piece, and its visual images
· Making every element pertinent
· Making your story coherent
These rules are particularly relevant to a silent film.
· The vision of the piece, and its visual images
· Making every element pertinent
· Making your story coherent
These rules are particularly relevant to a silent film.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
The Evaluation Questions Based on Recreation of My Beast Friend
Looking
back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression
from it to the full product
We were given the task of recreating a short film, the one we chose to do was My Beast Friend, originally directed by Ewan Torrance. We chose it because it is very funny and original. From this I learnt how to plan a full day of filming and experiment with different camera shots and angles.
What information will be needed to create these?
We needed to study the film many times in order to get every single detail of the film as similar to the original as possible.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We recieved some audience feedback on Youtube for our film. Including a comment and email from the original writer of My Beast Friend. He said ...
We were given the task of recreating a short film, the one we chose to do was My Beast Friend, originally directed by Ewan Torrance. We chose it because it is very funny and original. From this I learnt how to plan a full day of filming and experiment with different camera shots and angles.
What information will be needed to create these?
We needed to study the film many times in order to get every single detail of the film as similar to the original as possible.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Setting/location.
I used a very domestic environment which was very similar to that in the original, this was because it was a hallway which we decorated with scattered boxes, binbags filled with stuff and it had a glass door. This meant it looked very much like Ed was clearing stuff out, making it even more similar to the original.
I used a very domestic environment which was very similar to that in the original, this was because it was a hallway which we decorated with scattered boxes, binbags filled with stuff and it had a glass door. This meant it looked very much like Ed was clearing stuff out, making it even more similar to the original.
Costumes and Props.
We created a cat costume out of a dressing gown and cat ears for fluff. We also made Fluff's tag and box to be very similar to the original. Other props included the box of magazines Ed's carrying, which we replicated. And the bin bags.
We created a cat costume out of a dressing gown and cat ears for fluff. We also made Fluff's tag and box to be very similar to the original. Other props included the box of magazines Ed's carrying, which we replicated. And the bin bags.
Font and
Style of titling.
We used the same font and titling as in the original, and the same music and movement as it fades in. This meant that our film looked as similar to the original as possible.
The Story.
In a nutshell, My Beast Friend is about a young man (Ed) who is trying to get rid of his foul-mouthed cat Fluff, who Ed sees as being a man dressed up in a cat costume. He decides to trick Fluff into thinking he is going to go to a place called Pleasureland and that it's just for cats. However, Amelia turns up early and sees Fluff as a real cat and doesn't realise it was Ed who was trying to get rid of him in the first place.
In a nutshell, My Beast Friend is about a young man (Ed) who is trying to get rid of his foul-mouthed cat Fluff, who Ed sees as being a man dressed up in a cat costume. He decides to trick Fluff into thinking he is going to go to a place called Pleasureland and that it's just for cats. However, Amelia turns up early and sees Fluff as a real cat and doesn't realise it was Ed who was trying to get rid of him in the first place.
How the characters are introduced.
There are only three characters in the entire script. Fluff, Amelia and Ed. Fluff is a grumpy cat who is owned by Ed, he is seen by Ed as a man in a cat costume but by Amelia as a cute cat who has been abandoned by a 'monster' he makes harsh remarks at Ed's expense and threatens to 'sick up all of yesterdays tuna' when he wants to know what is happening and what the tag around his neck says. Ed is the second main character (next to Fluff) He is Fluff's owner and tries to get rid of his irritating cat. Ed has evidently developed a relationship with a girl called Amelia, though she is described by Fluff as being way out of his league. He lies to Fluff saying he will go to a 'great fun place just for cats' however, he is planning to dump him in this cardboard box somewhere, which is much to Amelia's horror, although she does not know that it was Ed who planned to dump him. Amelia is Ed's girlfriend who turns up really early, which is how she meets Fluff. She could be described as being a bit dippy and not all there as when she sees Fluff for the first time she is completely unaware that Ed (her boyfriend) was the 'monster' who 'abandoned this sweet little creature.' it is Amelia that forces Ed and Fluff back together as she is Fluff's 'New mummy now'
There are only three characters in the entire script. Fluff, Amelia and Ed. Fluff is a grumpy cat who is owned by Ed, he is seen by Ed as a man in a cat costume but by Amelia as a cute cat who has been abandoned by a 'monster' he makes harsh remarks at Ed's expense and threatens to 'sick up all of yesterdays tuna' when he wants to know what is happening and what the tag around his neck says. Ed is the second main character (next to Fluff) He is Fluff's owner and tries to get rid of his irritating cat. Ed has evidently developed a relationship with a girl called Amelia, though she is described by Fluff as being way out of his league. He lies to Fluff saying he will go to a 'great fun place just for cats' however, he is planning to dump him in this cardboard box somewhere, which is much to Amelia's horror, although she does not know that it was Ed who planned to dump him. Amelia is Ed's girlfriend who turns up really early, which is how she meets Fluff. She could be described as being a bit dippy and not all there as when she sees Fluff for the first time she is completely unaware that Ed (her boyfriend) was the 'monster' who 'abandoned this sweet little creature.' it is Amelia that forces Ed and Fluff back together as she is Fluff's 'New mummy now'
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We recieved some audience feedback on Youtube for our film. Including a comment and email from the original writer of My Beast Friend. He said ...
"Hi Evie and Lily,
That sounds great.
I haven't done that many short films, though I have done quite a bit of TV writing over the last few years. I think some of the same rules apply, like...
The key to good films and low budgets is planning.
Only film what you'll need, and remember that people like stories about people. Spend time making your characters interesting. Make us care about them, even if we don't like them.
Don't set out to write a five minute film. Start writing a half hour and edit edit edit the script until you've got down to five minutes. Like I said, I went from four minutes down to one and ditched a lot of stuff. But what was left worked really well.
Remember that you have much more than just words to use. We used looks, reactions, movement and even the hand-written note to get the information across. Make every shot work as hard as it can.
If you get the opportunity, there is one pretty good book you could look at. 'Rebel Without A Crew', by Robert Rodriguez (who made 'Sin City' and 'Spy Kids'), where he describes making his first feature. It's pretty good nuts and bolts stuff.
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now. Let me know if I can help with anything else, and keep me posted.
All the best,
As can be seen we were given a lot of advice from Fergus Mitchell, which really helped us. We also recieved positive feedback in our class which highlighted our strong points, and constructive criticism - so that we knew which areas we must focus on in order to create more short films.Fergus Mitchell."
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
-Picnik.com & Photoshop were used to create and edit my poster for My Beast Friend
.
- After Effects, which we used for the animation of text at the very beginning.
- After Effects, which we used for the animation of text at the very beginning.
- Adobe Premier Pro, which I edited the film
on.
- Youtube, to gather music and study original film.
- Youtube, to gather music and study original film.
- Facebook,
which we used to contact my actors and others.
- Blogger, to
upload and update my work in progress.
- iTunes, to download music for the film.
- iTunes, to download music for the film.
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