Our extract from our film Final Dreams borrowed a lot of influences from surreal films such as Donnie Darko (Richard kelly, 2001) and Pans Labyrinth (Guillermo del toro, 2006). It was influences like these which were very helpful in my role as the camera person/cinematographer in our project.
Our film was a mix of fantasy and horror. As the camera person/cinematographer I took a few shots of the scenery in order to give an idea of where the main character was, however it was realized earlier that I had not taken enough footage of the surrounding area which is important to establishing the scene. I took a shot of some of the sheep in the background in order to establish a sense that this was a rural area.
Scene from Final Dreams
There was also a shot at the end, of the main character, after she had fallen from the ledge of the shed, in this shot I zoomed out slowly to help reveal slowly how much the scenery has changed. There was originally a shot which showed the main characters point of view, zooming out in a way that mirrors the previous shot but this shot was omitted because it looked too similar to the scenery from the previous scene which didn’t make sense. The final shot also used a HD camera and had crisper colour in order to mirror the style of The Wizard Of Oz (Victor Flemming, 1939) where Dorothy steps out from her black and white world into the colourful Oz.
Scene from The Wizard Of Oz
During our sequence there were a lot of shots of the two characters separately. Most of the shots of the main female character show her in profile whilst a lot of the shots of the male character are straight on. These shots were meant to show the contrast between the two characters, even though the shots are quite similar, both being close ups to show the connection between them, they positioning was different in order to show that there was still a clear difference between them. They are also shown separately to show the division between her world and his. There is only one shot that shows both of them together, without this shot the male character would’ve seemed more like a figment of her imagination as the audience would only have been seeing him through her view, but this shot of both of them is almost through someone else’s eyes.
It was scenes like this in Donnie Darko which were influences for the style of lighting and the use of camera work to help the narrative. This particular shot shows Donnie’s expression in an attempt to show his dazed expression as the next shot shows the large strange rabbit that he sees in the scene. Our extract showed a similar shot, extreme close up, of our main character looking at the camera with a dazed expression and then showing the strange person whom she now sees.
Scene from Donnie Darko
The other members in the group who were responsible for sound and editing were important in developing the narrative. The sound was important in showing the transition between the seemingly normal and the sudden strange events that start occuring as the music started around when she starts seeing the man. However the editing was key in showing the strangeness of the scene in the editing of the sound and colour as there were little effects in the camera work to show this change in the scene. The colour became brighter and the contrast was put up when the man in the hat was on screen. The lighting of the scene was effective as well in the way the man in the hat’s face is shadowed over in two of the shots, making him more mysterios and scary. The music used a simple piano tune, the tune was quite fast, and at certain points the music stopped in a dramatic way and this gave a good effect when she first fell into the new world and the music stopped suddenly giving it more emphasis.
The original plan for the film was to involve a shot of a children’s park, but because there was no children’s parks around it was decided that it wouldn’t make sense and would confuse the Audience. There was also the idea of using a top hat which we did not have so it was a normal hat, a lot of the costume ideas had to be omitted because the actors didn’t have the right clothes, the style of clothes at the end did however go as planned. The voices were originally going to be voiced over as well, but due to time restrictions it was made difficult, an attempt at a voice over for the humming noise at the beginning did not sound as good as the original track and so we chose to keep the original.
A lot of the feedback we received was based on the fact that there was an insufficient amount of shots taken during filming, although I thought it looked fine at the time it is an area that, if I could, would like to work on as it would have helped to have as much variety in the shot types as possible. Another piece of feedback was on the sound, the natural sound was quite grainy because of the background noises so it was suggested that a voiceover was used, although I like the natural sound I would’ve liked to have tried the voice over option over the entire script to see the difference. Some of our panning was also quite sloppy, it was shaky and odd at some parts, the music was also commented as being a bit linear, as it only used one simple piano tune mostly, in my opinion this was an effective part because the simplicity of the music made the scene creepier.
Because of the timing and restrictions on the filming we were unable to film enough footage to help establish the scene better, but this in itself has been a learning experience and helped me in my general camera skills, such as in other classes where another film I shot has worked very well.
Good use of angles sloppy panning good use of close up
Mise-en-scene
good when she changes clothes guy was well dressed and mysterious not noticeable that she fell into a new world good use of setting and shots good costumes
Editing good panning mental people? very good editing liked double vision
Sound
Trippy soundtrack good use of dreany voice filter nice use of Diagetic sound (birds) little bit linear (only piano tunes)
we have completed a second rough draft of our film, we also have agreed that there are still several improvements to be made before the final cut. We added a piece of footage to replace one of the less refined shots at the beginning and it now looks much better. We are currently working towards our final cut for the deadline.
Unfortunately, due to weather circumstances, we have missed a weeks worth of lessons, due to the college being closed,and students not being able to get to college. to catch up, we will work on editing for our final cut, and blog and everything else at the same time.
The sound is a bit rough at the moment but for the final cut we will voice over most of the piece. The music works particularly well in this extract. We also wanted to add some more establishing shots and exchange one of them as it's a bit shaky. Some of the piece may have more effects added in, mainly to the audio.
the rough cut is nearly finished, we are just checking it through to see where we can add the new clips that Tim got, at the moment we are converting the new clips
Today's filming was successful, We finished all the shots but unfortunately there was one shot where two of the characters shake hands in which there were some continuity errors such as slight background problems, we may have to cut one of the shots in order for it too look right. However the rest of the filming was fine. I doubt the final film will look as good as it was planned, but this is what we have for now. Any sound will have to be added as a voice over, it will help add surreality to the scene if the male voice over is distorted.
We were able to successfully use our locations, and all of our group showed up, the timing of some members of the group was bad, but this was due to finding the location.
We may have animal noises in the background due to location, but we are going to use external sounds and mute the sounds from the clip.
(The sound of a humming girl can be heard, the camera moves around getting shots of different places and eventually fully showing the main female lead. The screen shows her point of view with an empty view in front of her, it then shows the same shot a few seconds later with a man standing there. He laughs lightly)
Man: Hello rabbit. (girl stares) Are you sad rabbit? (girl looks away) Then follow us rabbit! We can make you happy...
(Girl takes his hand, only to discover there is nobody there.)
The scene has little dialogue and it is quite cyrptic, The girl doesn't say anything.
These are some costume ideas for the female lead. The first one is just simple white, it shows the innocence and purity of the character. It contrasts with the male character whom wears mainly black. The second costume is mainly checkered and is a very strange outfit, this symbolizes her fall into a different world of sorts, and reflects the strangeness of the world that she has landed in. The fact that the costume is black and white shows her changing from the sweet and pure as, as the film goes on, she becomes less innocent and good. The male character would wear black and have a top hat (hat is important!) and a waist coat, like a suit. This costume implies something clever and sophisticated about him but also something strange as he is wearing a suit in an odd situation. The fact that he wears black puts him as like an opposition to the main character.
For this sequence there are no props, costume is the most important thing.
We have sorted out our schedule for this sunday. Our filming will take place on sunday and we will be using a location of Tim's, Most of today has been spent figuring out how to get to there and when. We will be needing actors from outside the class, Lloyd has been in charge of them but if they can't make it Vonnie will attempt to find someone, and if that fails Tim can get someone from his village.
Vonnie has some elements of clothes that will work with anybody so costumes is sorted and Tim has a top hat and waistcoat for the male character. Because the lighting may change we may have some lighting equipment to help. Because Vonnie is the camera person it's her job to bring it on sunday.
The animatic at the moment has no sound but we will add sound later, it will start of with the girl humming a tune and then some silence before music comes in, we may add voices also. As can be seen there is alot of use of camera movement in this piece.
1. Black Screen -hear a girl humming a tune title appears 2. close up girl- humming tune profile image of girls face 3. Wide shot slow pan- trees, wind rustling, girl humming 4. Medium shot over shoulder- girl humming, view from behind 5. wide shot- park rides move slowly creaking slightly 6. long shot- hows girl sitting on roof, looks cold, uncaring still humming 7.close up of girls eyes- girl blinks several times 8. POV of girl- shows edge of roof, music starts 9. close up of girls eyes- last blink is distorted, camera moves quickly 10. Long POV shot- man appears at roof edge 11. close up profile shot- expression unchanged, long lasting shot 12. close up of man panning- man smiles, hat covers right eye 13. close up of man -he speaks and face is a bit more visible 14. close up slow pan- girls expression blank but seemingly confused, man speaks 15. Long shot, slow pan- music quiet but gets louder, man speaks 16. close up of girl- she looks away sad, nearly nodding 17. Medium shot, long of man- excited, he speaks, energetic 18. medium shot of man- voice becomes distorted 19. close up of mans hand- quick shot 20.close up of girl- stares at hand for while than gets up 21. close up- hand reaches for his, camera cuts before they touch 22. medium long shot- man disappears, girl moves hand back confused, music loud 23. close up of girls feet- she walks to edge of roof 24. high angle from ground- she looks down 25. long shot from side- as above 26. high angle POV- showing ground 27. close up of feet- jumps 28. extreme face close up- falls 29. close up of girl hitting ground safely- (costume/location change) 30. V. long shot of girl- girl confused looks round
we intend to book the camera for the following dates: 22/01/09 - 25/01/09 Rough cut deadline: Thursday 29th January Final cut deadline: Thursday 5th of February
Because Adam is only able to do any filming outside of school at the weekend we will probably have to do the filming this coming weekend, but that leaves the rest of the week to get everything sorted out for it as it will be much easier if we have everything ready before hand.
Things that could be sorted out this week: Costume Props Storyboarding Scripting Finding actors Sorting out the location Renting out cameras Music (possibly)
The begining of the extract zooms in on the man speaking to draw focus but then slowly moves down towards the fire, the fire is representative of chaos and war so it gives a good effect considering the man is speaking about a murderer. Throughout the sequence the only face that can be seen clearly is the hessian horseman in order to show his ferocity, by not showing the faces of the other people in close up it shows how insignifigant they are and that they are not important characters. Unlike in older films, where the convention is to not show the violence and make the viewer think they saw it, the violence is the main part that is shown in fast shots so it is hardly noticed with all the carnage around it. The shots are fast but have little movement during the battle scene, there is some movement in following the movements of the horseman which, again, is effective in giving him focus. The end of the battle scene is a close up showing his sharpened teeth in detail as the man is talking about them. After the battle the shots are longer and slower giving an eery calmness to the scene, and also helps show how the horseman is slowly reaching his end. As the people move through the forest the camera follows them through the trees which helps show that the characters are somewhat lost in this forest as it all looks the same. Despite the intensity of him bieng chased the movement is still quite slow. As the camera spins around the horseman, the audience can see essentially what he sees without a point of view shot, this is effective in showing the two girls as the viewer doesn't see them until he does. Before the flashback cuts away the audience can see the man about to cut of his head which is effective as we can see it but the character can't see it. The way it cuts at the end is effective as it doesn't show his death, in comparison it always showed the death of the others. The final shot of Ichabod shows his cup shaking which shows how scared he really is but when the camera moves up it shows the front he's putting on in pretending not to be afraid.
The first shot moves fluently and shows the drink before showing the man drinking it, this gives us a quick impression of that character. The next shot almost looks like somebody is watching him and shows how empty the bar is. The shot through the mirror is effective, it is an over the shoulder shot so it seems like Jude is facing the man in the mirror. All the shots are quite long and move slowly, if at all, which helps fit with he music which (at this point) is slow. The slow zoom on both of them keeps the focus on the two characters and as Jude is looking away and it zooms towards his head it gives the impression of him thinking. As Jude starts to leave the bar the camera follows his every movement, when he sits up slightly it moves up and when he stands up and leaves it goes with him. As he is packing the camera moves up and the audience starts to see the woman in shot whom that hadn't seen before making her introduction almost a surprise. There are a couple of shots themed around looking down streets that recede far into the distance, this is effective in showing him walking away from his home as the distance seems greater. A particularily good shot is when the camera moves backwards as Jude moves away from the screen making it seem like he travels faster as the music speeds up. With the man drinking the camera moves with his bottle which puts the focus on what he is doing and gives a quick idea of the man. The whole extract contains alot of camera movement all on moving around the character in focus, the man playing the garbage bins, Jude, whoever is important at that point the camera will follow them.
For our mood board we used images that were dark and some that were strange and surreal. There are some pictures of the northern lights as they are a naturally strange occurance. Most of the pictures are characters reminiscent of the mad hatter, as this is a character similar to a character in our film idea, there is a significance of the hat in the film so there were quite a few hats. The girl on the roof is similar to a shot that could be done in a part of the film. There were also some shots from Donnie darko and pans labyrinth (inspirations for the film) and quite a few evil looking women from other films.
The music is slow and meant to be creepy to fit the mood of the film and images.
Journey through the depths of a mysterious wonderland as Olivia struggles with her understanding of reality. Following Black, a strange man with an interesting hat, Olivia's concept of what is real and what isn't unravels as the line between imagination and reality becomes thinner.
- A short pitch for the film, exposing as little of the film as possible but still leaving it interesting enough for people to want to see it.
Possible taglines for the film: What is real? The line between worlds is breaking Do you know what is here? Do you know what is real? Where is reality? Dreams can come true
Possible names: Crack in the line Dream hole Crack in the light Final dreams Last dreams Rabbit Break in the line
Frank the rabbit in this sequence has a strange distorted voice, this is a useful effect in making him seem less real, creepier and is the sort of thing that would be a useful effect in our sequence. The dark lighting and the very still camera makes the whole scene stranger. The still camera makes it seem calm but the voice and the monstrosity of the rabbit contrasts greatly giving a more eery effect to the scene. The way that the character of Donnie doesn't seem bothered by this is also unnerving and shows alot about his character. Narrative wise, the way Donnie follows Franks voice is reminiscent of how the white rabbit in alice in wonderland or the bug in pans labyrinth leads the characters away from home. The following of a voice without seeing where it comes from adds some tension to the scene at wanting to know where it came from.
