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| Monday, 2 March 2009 |
| My Evaluation |
Labels: Matthew Rumble |
posted by AS Film Studies Students @ 16:15  |
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| Short Film Evaluation |
Short Film Evaluation.
When making a short film sequence my role within the group was Editor. This meant that i had key roles such as putting effects in within the sequence but also putting the sequence together. I also had to make sure that the timing of the film was correct and that the speed felt right. Another important factor i had to arrange was putting the soundtrack with the sequence and making sure that it went in at the right times and began at the same time as the film did.
In my short film the sub-genre that my group worked in was thriller, this influenced the way we worked because it made us research other thrillers that we enjoyed. We mainly enjoy thriller films because they make us jump and get our hearts racing, it also increases our adrenaline levels also. Usually thrillers do this because they use important micro elements such as strong editing skills like quick cut shots and using dark lighting to make us nervous. We tend to get nervous because we know something is going to happen but we arent quite sure when or where. By researching some thrillers it gave us ideas about how to make our short film tense and exciting. For example by researching some films I realized that thrillers use dark lighting and tense music in order to create suspense and make the audience’s heart race with adrenalin. For example the film "The Panic Room" uses dark scenes and dark lighting within the settings to create these moods of suspense and fear.
Some of the editing skills that were used within the film "The Panic Room" included such elemnts as quick cut shots. This will make the sequence feel more rushed in key scenes such a chase scenes. It will make the audiences hearts race with adrenaline and excitement and really grip them into watching the film.
The Editor of the film uses fading transitions. This makes the sequence feel more natural as the transitions are unoticeable making it feel more realistic. This has the desired affect upon the audience by making them think about what it would be like to be in the characters shoes which adds to that adrenaline and excitement.
When creating the short film my role within the group was editor. This meant that I had the responsibility of putting the film together and making sure that the sequence made sense. I also had the ability to put in special effects to the film that I thought would make it exciting and enjoyable.
I created a narrative structure in the film by arranging all the scenes into the correct order so that the film made sense and was understandable to the audience. When we filmed the scenes we did not film them in the correct order so they were muddled up, therefore this is where my role as the editor was important.
When working as a group we developed our ideas that we each had as individuals by discussing them with each other and talking about the possibilities that each idea held.
The effects that I put on the short film included colour correction and quick cuts. I put these in so that it would make the film seem slightly eerie and creepy when the main character was being followed by an unknown character.
When we began filming we had not figured out an ending to our short sequence. As we went through each scenes we began developing ideas that would be a possible ending. We had such ideas as involving new characters and killing off the main character.
In the end of our short sequence we decided to leave it with an ending that would make the audience want more. For example we ended the sequence with the main female character falling down the stairs and the stalker character being left in front of her. We cut the scene there so as the audience does not see what happens to the character, this leaves them wanting more. Therefore we did not actually finish the short story but left it to be cut short because it leaves the audience with questions.
Another idea we had was to put dark lighting in the sequence, however we decided to change this idea whilst editing because it did not work with our sequence or the natural light that was produced from the film itself. Therefore we edited the sequence so that the light was brighter but looked slightly distorting.
When thinking about the audience of the sequence, we wanted the audience to feel slightly out of place as the film was about a young girl being followed by an unknown character. We filmed most of the sequence from the stalkers point of view, this puts the audience in the stalkers shoes and makes them curious about the female character.
The feedback to our film was mainly positive. The audience liked our point of view shots and how we get flicking back from one point of view to another. It made the audience curious about what was going to happen between the two main characters.
Another thing that the audience liked was our soundtrack. We created our own creepy high pitched music to go over the top of the film which added to the disturbing effect. We also left some of the diegetic soundtrack that we recorded from the camera on the film because it made it seem that slightly bit more realistic. We wanted it to seem realistic because that way it makes the audience think that it could actually possibly happen to them.
This was another important thing i had to work with, we had our sound man of the group create the soundtrack, once this had been done i had to import it to final cut (The editing program i was using). I had to make sure that it came in at the right time and fitted well with the key scenes. For example the scenes where the main female character is being followed, i had to make sure there was soundtrack for this part as it was a key part of the film that needed the disturbing soundtrack.
By using a variety of different point of view shots it enabled me to use quick cut shots. I wanted to use these in the film because they make the sequence seem fast and creepy.
I was also glad that I got to use the colour corrector because it was another effect that I had been wanting to try out for some time. I gave it a quick go to see how it would come out and adjusted the colour leves, luckily it worked out well with our film and every other member of the group thought it worked well too. We decided to keep it in after that because it made the film look oddly different and slightly eerie, it was that touch that we had been looking for as it was different to anything else any other films had used. Usually thriller films use dark colours to make it seem scary and unnerving, however our film did still feel oddly disturbing by using odd bright colours.
I also used a transition so that I could put footage on top of another at the same time. This made the scene look incredibly creepy. However we decided not to use it in the end because we felt that it did not fit in with the distorted colours that we had used.
It also made the seqence feel slighty sluggish and slow, so we removed it and kept it to one piece of footage showing at one time.Labels: Stephanie Fretwell |
| posted by AS Film Studies Students @ 12:01 |
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| Sound Inspiration |
This is a video of the experimental drummer - that I have previously noted in one of my posts - called Chris Corsano. It is funny to think that when he was performing this back in 2006 at Cambridge's All Saints Church, I was seated literally about 4 or 5 meters in front of him.
But this guy uses not only drums: he uses all sorts of instruments, then plays them in an un-conventional fashion to create a brilliant sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNY_PH_RH3sLabels: Matthew Rumble |
| posted by AS Film Studies Students @ 01:56 |
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| Friday, 27 February 2009 |
| Some of my experiments and final versions from Garageband |
 Attempt at a score,
 Created tap sound effect,
 Created footsteps sound effect.Labels: Matthew Rumble |
| posted by AS Film Studies Students @ 05:39 |
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| Monday, 26 January 2009 |
| Ah… Trusty Oscillators |
| For my role in the project, I've been looking into various sound effects, sound artists and generally creepy things that make equally creepy noises. For instance, I have spent a lot of my time playing with a home-made sound box known as an oscillator. This produces various audible frequencies: One of the two dials changes the pitch of the audio, and the other messes about with the frequencies that are produced. I'll upload the audio that I recorded with it at a later date, when I have more time, but for the mean time, here are a couple of links that I have drawn some inspiration from with regards to background music / sound effects : http://www.myspace.com/babygrandbabygrand (this is my eldest sister's band, and they mess about with an awful lot of instruments and other things that they can modify into instruments to create really experimental sounds. my sister can play the saw, which sounds really fitting for a thriller!) http://www.myspace.com/chriscorsano (this guy is an experimental drummer who I have seen perform at an alternative experimental music festival called Palimpsest, and he uses very strange techniques to play his instruments.) Labels: Matthew Rumble |
| posted by AS Film Studies Students @ 01:20 |
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| Test footage |
I brought in my own camera from home as we decided it would be easier to use rather then having to hire one out from the college.
Freddie our cinematographer shot some test footage during college hours to see if my camera worked with the college Mac's. We also tested out the night vision button to see how well it worked and to see if it gave us some ideas.
Luckily the camera worked really well with the Mac's and I was able to upload the very short clip of Freddie and Amy in the cupboard screaming.
I also gave my editing skills a quick go with final cut and cut the short piece up and added some sound effects.Labels: Stephanie Fretwell |
| posted by AS Film Studies Students @ 01:13 |
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