PODCAST3

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PRACTICE EXERCISE: Deconstruction of ´71

In class we did a practice exercise on how to tackle the first exam question.

How is meaning created?
We had to consider these 4 technical areas:

• Mise-en-scene
• Sound
• Cinematography
• Editing

These are some of the quick notes I came up. Also, some additional informations:

• Studio canal → both distribution and production, mainly distribution (co-production), often financing, one of the subsidiary of one of the Big Six owned by NBCUniversal
• Film4 → UK TV channel, if seeing Film4 or (BBC films) immediately denotes Low Budget probably Indie, financing company,
• BFI → funded by the UK governments, gives grants to films that they think needs support, see in most Indie film, replaced UK Council

Co-production even for the Big Six is common. Spilts the risk.

Accent is an important bit of representation(Northern english) which you wouldn’t find in working title movies. In American drama they use the accent to indicate working class, poor. The thick New York accent would connote posh, upper class.

The longer takes it is the less appealing it is to younger audience. However, in the movie you have a balance of long and short takes.

The seniors coming in and there’s a tacking shot but in extreme long shot then centrally framed where the sides are reserved for the inferior people.

Editing:

• Didn’t get an establishing shot aka ELS.
• No fade in, in first shot or audio → “Straight cut” enhance the impact in brutality
• ellipsis
• audio bridge between boxing scene and running scene
• editing style has changed (longer takes, )
• almost a match cut archived through audio

Cinematography:

• a lot of medium close up
• partially find shot reverse shot
• a lot of fast pace short takes
• whip pans
• a lot of fast pace, handheld tracking shot
• a lot of movements, shakiness
• odd framings
• low key, naturalistic lighting
• male character then get the equivalent shots as the senior officer

Title:

• white font, serif, on black background which connotes seriousness/drama
• different sizing of names to distinguish different types of roles
• Film4 and BFI are in capitals because they are important (financing companies)
• 2^nd title regional financing companies (Screen Yorkshire, Creative Scotland)

Audio:

• audio bridge (we don’t see the shot)
• which also adds narrative enigma
• people shouting, sound of impact
• diegetic sound
• could consider the crowd to be ambient sound, non-diegetic, adds verisimilitude
• the drum kicks in the background would connote sinister (something is going to happen)

Mise-en-scene:

• archived by Verisimilitude:

• make-up (blood)
• sweat
• uniform
• short hair
• people in the background also have sweat (meaning created, details)
• everybody has the same hair cut, wearing the same uniform makes it more realistic
• not a wealthy guy because the male character is taking the bus instead of driving on a sports car
• the scene in the bus refers to the title because of the old man smoking on the bus which isn’t allowed now but probably around 1971 it is
• not in a fancy restaurant, small cafe

Central protagonist:

• tracking
• not focusing on the senior guy, always focused on the male character
• centrally framed
• cut to get a tighter shot of the male character (from a medium long shot to a medium close up)
• shallow field of focus, male character in focus
• always cut back to the male character, still centrally framed and in focus

IDENT: Red Films

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For this ident I used photo transfer paper to iron the Red Films logo onto a white t-shirt. I mixed red paint with water so that it would make an even splatter on the t-shirt rather than just paint chunks. In FCPX I reversed the clip so that it looks like the paint comes off the shirt and added a colour mask so that red was the only colour and the rest was in black and white to give it a grim mood.
This ties in with the social realist genre we have decided for our film opening, and the short, practical effect is conventional of indie production/distribution companies. 
The serif font on the t-shirt is also conventional of low-budget indie companies.

IDENT: Journey Films (new)

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This is the new stop-go ident for Journey Films, the production company for our film The Journey

IDENT: Journey Films

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For this Ident, I used a luggage and threw clothes in it. Under the clothes, I wrote "Journey Films" on a piece of paper and included a passport which adds verisimilitude. Then I reversed the clip and increased the speed by 8.

IDENT: Maw Productions

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For this Ident, I took several pictures and put it into FCPX as a sequence. I shortened the duration of the pictures to make the sequence faster and also decrease the duration of the Ident (2-3seconds long like other Indie Idents). I added a 3D title which zooms in and out which makes it an animated title. Then I recorded a voice-over saying "Maw Productions" and put a filter on the voice-over.

Sample Scene1

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This is our first sample scene. However, this scene is to be reshot since the shots were shaky. We didn't have the cast I wanted. No tripod or stabilizer and more shots of Tanay hitting the ball. 

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Here we see how I recorded and created the background music for our film opening. It's a melody on the guitar with notes that are several seconds apart just like in Tyrannosaur.

(MY WORK)

Review notes:

• The jogging is not realistic (takes away from verisimilitude)
• get involved as director and demonstrate
• Use stabiliser 
• See if actor can grow a beard to make him look older
• Add sound of heavy panting for running
• POV GoPro shots of running
• Add water to make it look like sweat on the protagonist (for verisimilitude)
• Bring towels to show tennis player wiping sweat off of himself
• Try and film the final cut before the end of autumn (colours show up nicely on camera)
• not enough shots
• not enough shot variety
• bring water bottle to make Tanay look sweaty
• create a coach character - verisimilitude
• get sound of tennis balls 
• create dialogue
• get shots of Tanay warming up
• see if you can get someone to play tennis with him

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PRELIM

In today's lesson, we filmed our prelim to practice continuity editing, understand match on action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180-degree rule. For our prelim, we didn't have much time to plan. Our task involved filming and editing a character opening a door, facing another character, with whom he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. 

Continuity editing is the process of creating a smooth and seamless narrative experience for the audience. It is combining several related shots, or different components cut from a single shot, into a sequence.

Match on action is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. It creates a sense of continuity of the same action rather than matching two separate things.

180-degree rule is a filming guideline that participants in a scene should have the same left or right relationship to each other, with filming only taking place within the 180-degree angle in which this is maintained in a conversation, for example. 

Shot Reverse Shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations. A shot showing what the character is supposedly looking at either a point of view or over the shoulder shot. Then followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it, or the other character looking back at them. It often ties with the 180-degree rule to retain continuity.

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What I have learned

• shooting in reverse order
• having a shot list makes everything quicker
• no confusion
• the bigger the cast the harder it is to have everything under control (people talking, noisy etc.)
• the director needs to make clear instructions
• body language is also important to make the mood/message clear
• has to decide what to include and exclude
• important to try manual focus too
• always have multiple angles/shots from the same scene so you have more to work with or choose from during the editing process
• shooting in low light could affect video quality
• natural lighting could be used for shadow (made it mysterious)
• we had a tilting shot, panning shot, low angle, tracking shot, close up, medium shot, Dutch angle, over the shoulder shot and worms eye

What I have learned on FCPX

• relink files when they are missing
• create favorites using F
• divide clips into categories using keyword (cmd + K)
• create a new library

What we didn't have

• tripods
• props
• stabilizer
• mood board
• call-sheet
• microphone

PODCAST2

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In this podcast we are talking about:

• a little bit of the pitch (what we didn´t have what we are going to do)
• looking into French / British new wave (Blogpost coming soon)
• research about genre convention

Genre Conventions: more films for analysis

Tennis Films

Wimbledon (Richard Loncraine, 2004) 
Synopsis: rom-com about 2 upcoming tennis players.
I'm going to look specifically at how tennis scenes are shot for influence in shooting a tennis scene in our film opening (specifically: framing, sound, and editing)


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Match Point (Woody Allen, 2005) 
Involves a retired tennis player, also looking into this one for inspiration for the tennis scene

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Main Films for Influence

Journeyman (Paddy Considine, 2018) 
Synopsis: social realist about an accomplished boxer suffers brain damage after defending his title at a tournament and has to work to recover and rebuild his life

Journeyman poster

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Tyrannosaur (Paddy Considine, 2011) 
Synopsis: a social realist which follows the life of working class, racist, violent man, Johnny.


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This is England (Shane Meadows, 2007)

Synopsis: social realist drama following the life of young Saun as he becomes a skinhead in 1983 England


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Dead Man's Shoes (Shane Meadows, 2004)
synopsis: British psychological thriller, Richard returns to his home town in the Peak District after serving in the British Army. He and his younger, mentally-impaired brother Anthony, camp at an abandoned farm near the town. Flashbacks reveal Anthony's abuse by a group of drug dealers in the town; Richard vows to take revenge. 


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Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993)

Naked poster

 
Synopsis: British black tragicomedy written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring David Thewlis as Johnny, a motor-mouthed intellectual and conspiracy theorist steals a car and visits his ex living with two housemates in London.
Mike Leigh is a famous kitchen sink realism writer so we'll probably take a lot of influence from his style.



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Sweet Sixteen (Ken Loach, 2002)
Synopsis: the story of a teenage boy from a troubled background, Liam, who dreams of starting afresh with his mother as soon as she has completed her prison term. 


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Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson, 1987)

Withnail and I poster

 
Synopsis: British black comedy, loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" who share a flat in Camden Town in 1969. Needing a holiday, they obtain the key to a country cottage in the Lake District belonging to Withnail's eccentric uncle Monty and drive there. The weekend holiday proves less recuperative than they expected.


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My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan, 1989) 
Synopsis: biographical comedy-drama about a working class Irishman born with cerebral palsy who could only move his left foot.
Focus on disability/rehabilitation aspect (in narrative, dialogue and filming/editing techniques) on how to realistically/effectively represent characters with disabilities (like our protagonist who is recovering form brain damage after being in an accident).

INFLUENCES Sports Movies

These are the film openings I looked at for influences of specific cinematography, mise-en-scene and editing.

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PODCAST1 grouped formed and initial idea

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In this podcast we are talking about our pitch and which movies we took influences from. Also what we are going to do in the following week.

TECHS1: Social media set-up

We've just set up 2 social media accounts
An Instagram for the director
A twitter for 1/3 prod cos, Red Films

We shared these images using the AirDrop tool

Sam set up this instagram

Harriet set up this twitter

Pitch1

Working title: The Journey 

Idea in a nutshell  

A professional tennis player is being left by his wife, however during his preparation for an upcoming competition his gets in an accident and suffers severe brain damage 

Narrative detail 

• * Todorov – begins with equilibrium being disrupted 
• o Tennis player’s wife is leaving him  
• o He gets hit by a car 

Idents 

Toyco Productions 

Infinite Productions 

The Toothpaste company 

Audience BBFC 15 (idealy) 

• * Primary:  
• o 18-24 male (identification) 
• o  C1C2DE (social realist) 
• * Secondary:  
• o younger (aspiration) 
• o AB (protagonist is rich tennis player - identification) 

Sound 

• * Ambient sound of tennis balls, coach shouting, tyres screeching 
• * Foley sound of heartbeat, feet running 
• * Record on guitar/bass/uke 

Locations 

• * Ask Tanay where he trains for tennis court 
• * Forrest next to school for jogging/car hitting scene 
• * Ask Jasper for wife’s house 
• * (hospital bed) 

Cinematography 

• * Narrative enigma and exposition –  
• o cross-cutting protagonist jogging with training in tennis court (show feet running, heartbeat pounding, don’t show face immediately, sound of tennis balls in court while training) 
• o Pan over entry slip for competition (coach could be shouting that he won’t ever win ‘that competition’ if he keeps training like this) 

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• o POV gopro on head when jogging 
• o Panning shot over pictures in room when wife is packing (ask Tanay for pictures of him with trophies, if not then photoshop – ask him to bring in tennis clothes and racket at lunch) 

Characters, Props 

• * Protagonist, ‘John’ – fancy training gear 
• * Wife/partner, ‘Susan’/’Paddy’ - makeup, black eye (ask Ellen) - pictures of tennis, packing 
• * Coach – whistle, addidas suit 

Health and Safety 

• * No one will actually get hit by a car 
• * Make sandwiches/cupcakes for shoots