Gothic film - 11th dec - Second day of filming

Today was our second and last day of filming and there is only one word that can describe my feelings for the day…COLD!!!! It was extremely cold and foggy and I found it very hard to work in the conditions that we were given. However, I gritted my teeth and got on with it to create what we hope to be a good gothic film of bath in the end. The last week jack had spent trying to get permission for the places we did not have permission to film in yet. These were Victoria Park near the Royal crescent, Southgate and also Sydney Gardens. We were able to get permission for the Circus the week before but didn’t manage to get up there until the second day of filming. We managed to get the permission we needed for Victoria Park and Southgate but we did not get permission for Sydney Gardens, which meant we were unable to achieve doing our shot there. We did however achieve the filming in Victoria Park, The Circus and Southgate.

Our first location was Victoria Park and we did about 5 shots of me running around the lawn in front of the crescent looking for my love. It was ever so cold and very wet and my feet went numb but I knew we had to achieve the shot. I trust Daisy and Jack’s knowledge about the camera and hope that they thought I achieved the right affect.

Our second location was The Circus. This shot would consist of me sitting in the middle of The Circus having almost given up on trying to find my long lost love. At this point I was seriously being affect by the cold and couldn’t feel my feet which meant I had a hard job acting the way I should have been because my thoughts were so fixed on how freezing I was. I assume we achieved the shot but I haven’t looked back on any of them as we were working to a very tight schedule.

Our third and final location was Southgate, outside of the shop Republic. We had to go into Republic to begin with and ask the supervisor if it was ok to film outside of the shop. He had to ask lots of different questions about what we were doing and what we were trying to achieve and then he gave us the permission we needed to do our last shot. It was an over shoulder (my shoulder) shot of my love ‘seeing’ me in the modern day and us passing each other in Southgate. The film ends on a cliffhanger and therefore has no real conclusion to the story. Our next step is to try and make it black and white and work out what we need to write in our dialogue boxes

Gothic film - 4th december - the day of the filming

Today was the day we were going to start to film our Gothic films. We had an introduction to the cameras by Sara and Chris (the cameraman) until 11 and learned a lot about how to achieve different affects and different ways to use the camera to our benefit. At 11 o'clock we were allowed to prepare and set off to our first location. Preparing for us was just me getting into costume this consisted of, a red dress, a black top hat fascinator and lots of black eyeliner. Our first location was at Walcott street steps. At this location we took three shots of me running up and down the stairs and also an alternative shot of me walking past a decorative wall. Sara taught us a lot about direction and also a lot about how to position the camera to achieve the best possible shot.

We then went to our second location alone, this was Laura place fountain. At this location I was going to sit on the side of the fountain and look around for my lost love. During the setting up of the scene Daisy came up with the idea that I sit on top of the fountain to make me look more ghost like. It would make me look more ghost like because I am able to get into wierd and wonderful locations and positions. This was my favourite shot to do but also at the same time was very embarrassing.

Our third location was at Helting close near Bath spa. At this location we filmed two of our shots. this was the hardest shot to film as it was a shot of me and my long lost love in the past together. Jack played the man in the scene and we found it hard to connect and look like a proper couple in the shot. We ended up doing the shot about 6 times to try and achieve a believable shot. Another problem we had were the cars in the background as it had to be made to look authentic and past like.

Our final location of the day was the tunnel at the railway station. We had to sign in and then we were free to use the tunnel as much as we liked. The shot was just a shot of me running through the tunnel looking for my love. We encountered a couple of problems during the filming of this shot. The first was the fact that the tunnel was very dark and because it was at 3.30 in the afternoon the street lights were on which created a very orangey background light. This is definitely a problem for our group as we had to make sure there was no red or orange colours in our shot. This may become problem when we edit our film later on.

Storyboard - first draft

Completing our task sheet

Today we should have received emails back from the Bath film office to confirm whether or not we can use the locations that we had decided on. However, Jenni who was in charge of this was not in today due to being ill. So we had to compromise and do the things we were able to do and print them out. We completed the film treatment, printed out the analysis of three short films and a list of props and costumes that we will need. Without the emails we cannot complete the following, our new storyboard, printing out the emails sent and received from the Bath film office, an updated printout of our locations plan and a detailed shooting schedule.

Jo has suggested that she tries to get hold of the Bath film office so they can resend the emails to one of our email addresses.This would be great as we could then complete the above.

20th November Lesson

Continuing with our new film project we finalized our ideas for the story and created a rough storyboard with camera angles and techniques we may use. We also finalized our ideas for the locations and filled in a Bath film office permission file and sent it off to Jenny and Rachel at the Bath film office. This will let us know if it will be ok to use the locations we have chosen and whether or not we will have any difficulty with filming where we would like too. We have decided that the best locations to show off the ‘other side’ of bath are Helting close near Bath Spa, Railway Close tunnel near the railway station, Walcot street staircase leading to Roman Road, Sydney Gardens riverside, The Royal Crescent, The Circus, Laura place fountain and the new Southgate Shopping centre. All of these locations offer all aspects of modern day life and architectural past times. Our first scene is to be of a couple in love in the past and the rest of our scenes are about the woman looking for her lost love and her being trapped in the present day. We decided as a group that these locations will hopefully give the gothic look by using the amazing architecture we have found around the city. As this is a type of advertisement for the city of Bath we came up with the idea of using different camera angles and shots to show off the city in the background whilst we tell our story.

13th November - writing film treatments, locations scouting session

Unfortunately I was not present at this lesson as I had come down with the flu. However, my team mates worked efficiently and were able to continue without me. They had to come up with locations for our filming, which are as follows:

• Alleyway by Bath spa
• Steps opposite Domino's
  
• Top of Walcot street stairs
• stairs by Pultney bridge
• Southgate
  
• Tunnel by train station
  
• River by Sydney gardens
  

6th november lesson

This was our first lesson with the film company 'Suited and Booted'. We were introduced to the lovely Sara Strictland who told us about what her role in 'Suited and Booted' is and what our project will entail. We also met Jenny and Rachel from the Bath film office and they gave us information about how production companies went about closing roads and setting up locations around Bath. After being introduced to our project we went off into our groups and thought about initial ideas for our films. I was put in a group with Jenni, Jack and Daisy. Our project is to make a 3 minute film advertising the 'Other side' to Bath. This means to advertise the Gothic aspect of Bath rather than the Georgian side of the city.

As a group we thought up a lot of different initial ideas. in the end we decided to base our film on the idea of a woman trapped in time. Basing our film on Love to get across the romantic aspect of the city. The ideas we came up with are:

• A woman trapped in time and lost her love.
  
• We want to make it elegant.
• Having period costume clashing with modern day clothing.
• Using the weather to get across the atmosphere.
• Black and white silent movie - not slapstick.
• The costume for the woman will be red and this will be the only colour in the film.
• Romantic piano music in the background.
  
• All films will be filmed in a different location advertising the architecture and gothic side of Bath.
  
• The film will also include captions throughout to tell the story - this makes it accessible for people who are unable to use sound on the computer.
  

'Gothic' Moving Image

For this report I have chosen three short films which relate to the theme 'Gothic' based on the fact that the term 'Gothic' has come to represent "a gloomy setting, grotesque, mysterious, or violent events, and an atmosphere of degeneration and decay." In this report I will be discussing how the films use mood and atmosphere, location, mis-en-scene, editing and audio in order to portray their Gothic themed film.

The first film I decided to study is called 'Dark Wood'. It is a film from one of 'The Cut' winners 2008. It is of Gothic theme and uses techniques like, pathetic fallacy, music and lighting to create tension, suspense and evoke feelings of distress. To begin with the film starts off pitch black with just the voices of the two characters, a young man and young lady. Their only source of light is coming from the flash torches that they are carrying. They are evidently lost and quite obviously in a wood because you can hear the crunching of leaves and snapping of twigs beneath their feet. The dialogue is telling the audience that they are unaware of there surroundings but are relatively calm. During this scene set up there is deep horrific music to relay the message of tension and on edge feelings to the audience. This is when the anonymous creature first makes himself known. We hear a crunching and rustle of leaves and the characters become aware of the noise. They become frantic and panicky, this is shown by the characters voices turning to a whisper and also the camera zooms into their faces to show there panicked and scared expressions. The only thing that makes us aware that there is an unknown ‘creature’ or person is the noises that the characters and we can hear. The noises are low, growl and sound very much like a werewolf type animal. The unknown aspect to the creature adds to the tension and the horror of the short film.

Shock tactics are used throughout the short film, such as, screaming and shouting and frantic camera movements to show how much the characters are being attacked. They use techniques such as heavy breathing and close ups so that we can relate to the characters and how they must be feeling at the time. Noises such as, crunching and breaking bones are used to add the element of grotesque and disgusting death to the already unknown act that is taking place. The only thing that you can really rely on to understand the film is the noises and the dialogue. The use of the blood being spluttered over the flashlight is really well done. It makes the light shining out of the torch become blood red adds to the atmosphere and mood of the production. The ending of the film is shocking as we see the young man being dragged away silently by the werewolf creature. The camera angle starts off by being zoomed right into his face t show his expression and then being dragged away at a fast pace in order to shock the audience. This is followed by blood red credits and heavy, dark music with low notes to add to the atmosphere of sadness.

The second film I studied was called ‘The Pigeon’. This is very different to the film I studied before, as it is more of a lighthearted horror story than a horror film. The film begins with a character called the Duke stood at the head of a long dining room table, seemingly about to host a feast, about to commit suicide. During the short film there is thunder and lightening in the background to add to the atmosphere, this is called pathetic fallacy. Also in the background is the narrators voice telling the story about the Duke. His voice is very husky and low and is speaking in rhyme. The setting of the film is in a castle like building. The walls are made of stone, which makes the place look cold and empty. As well as the narrator and thunder and lightening being in the background there is also the use of powerful scary music. The opening and closing credits are in black and white with the thunder and lightening in the background to tell the audience what type of film to expect. This films setting rather than its content is gothic. The use of cobwebs on the dead Dukes corpse adds a gothic and grotesque feeling to the film. The reason why the film is called ‘The Pigeon’ is because the Duke leaves the room where he just killed himself in order to follow the pigeon and try to kill it, only to find his corpse rotting, cobwebby and wasting away on the floor of the dining room. Techniques are used throughout the film to make it seem gothic and dark. These are the sound of the chiming clock, the soothing deep voice of the narrator, the camera angles, the use of the set and the opening and closing credits. Pathetic fallacy, music and rotting corpses all add to the atmosphere. One thing that really stood out to me was the fact that that the film was still gothic and grotesque even though it contained no blood in it. I also picked this film because I thought t was very unique and very cleverly done.

The third film I chose to study was called ‘Snuff’. This was also one of the winners of the 2008 film competition ‘The Cut’. This film was really interesting as it uses a different scare tactic. The film doesn’t contain any music in the background, which makes it more realistic. It also uses ‘real’ footage of the victim in her everyday life. These techniques enables the audience relate the situation to themselves and creates a very strong emotional response. The film starts off with a man wanting to make a homemade horror film. The lengths that he goes to too make this horror film are what are so scary about the film. The immediate scene of him with a knife sends out the message that this man has some serious issues. It cuts straight into the victim being chased and her screaming to be helped. The camera movements are very frantic and shaky to get the feeling that he is chasing her. During the film there is a lot of blood, gore and violence. The brief use of a saw cutting off the victims hand is very disturbing to watch. The man in the film uses a sickly voice that adds to the sick character that he is. This film uses a lot of different camera techniques such as flicking from her as a victim, tied up in a chair, to her in her everyday life. The film uses lots of close ups and zooming in to show the distressed face of the victim. To the end with the film is silent with a close up of the masked cameraman who has just killed the other man. The credits are also silent apart from the beeping, which is used to change every scene. They are also in a spiky font, in a grey colour and spluttering blood.

Evaluation for 'After the Storm' film

Throughout the project we have gone through many different production processes. We discussed ideas for our ten shot short film and decided on the superhero theme. We thought of lots of different ideas to relate to the title 'After the Storm', these included the comedown after drugs, gangsters, advertising products, aftermath of a storm and assassins.

From our discussions we came up with a plan to do an interview with an old famous superhero from the 1960's. We then drew a storyboard of our ten shots and added lines for the actors/actresses to say and music we were going to use in our film.

One challenging aspect of the project was that it was an in-camera editing project. This meant we couldn't edit the film and we had to do the shot in one take and not delete any scenes. This was challenging as we had to do many rehearsals and also had to keep a straight face during the shots. I personally struggled with this which is evident in the film as I lose concentration and start laughing at the end of shot 8.

The process of planning and making a short film was completely new to me as I have never properly used a camera before. I feel that I did well and worked well with our chosen groups to create a watchable ten shot film.

Another challenge we encountered was our locations. Because we couldn't re-arrange our shots, we had to run back and forth from the river side to our 'interviewing' room.

My biggest influence on the film was the 1960's music we used. We chose to do the 1960's because of the music from Jimi Hendrix (all along the watchtower) and the Rolling Stones (gimme shelter).

Overall I was pleased with the outcome of the film and I have learnt a lot from doing this project. I learnt how to plan and draw a storyboard, how to use a camera, how to direct and how to work well with a team and discuss ideas in a responsible manner.

Our ten shot film

Untitled from Abi on Vimeo.

Props

This is the mask and the logo we created for 'Storm' the superhero.

Comparison between two trailers

Weather Induction Project Evaluation

Storyboard for 'After the Storm'

The Day of our Filming

The day had come where we had to film our short film about 'Storm' and his life after being a celebrity. Kris had joined our group as well because the other two members of his group were ill and he took on the role as co-directer along with Faii. During our planning we had created a storyboard which had the script on it and the locations of the scenes. To begin with we started off in the 'interview room' and did our first scene. We used an over shoulder shot to get the sense of an interview. Because we were only allowed to do in-camera editing and only take one shot we had to rehearse a lot to get it right. Overall our whole production went really well and we were all really happy with the outcome of the short film. We only encountered a few problems whilst filming. These included the noise of the traffic and a couple of us stepping out of character at times. This happened in shot five when I started laughing at the end of the shot when I thought the camera had stopped filming. Another thing that happened was in shot 6 when 'storm' stuns Kris, he accidently falls in front of the camera rather than by the side of it so he ends up in the shot when he isn't supposed to be. Considering that this was our first group planning and filming excercise that we knew was going to be assessed, I feel that we wroked really well together as a team and the filming went really well.

Planning for our short film

Last week Jo (our film teacher) gave us our project for this week. our project was to create a short film based on the title 'After the Storm'. We were assigned to groups of three (Me, Faii and Liam) and given the chance to write down initial ideas about what our short film could be about. We came up with lots of different ideas, our favourites included the come down after taking drugs, the aftermath of a storm or an advert for a product called 'After the Storm', (that one was my favourite!) In the end we decided to do the short film about a superhero called 'The Storm'. The film would based on an interview of 'Storm' about what his life used to be like and, in contrast, what his life is like now. We thought that this would be the best idea because it is original, unique and quite quirky. We also thought it would be funny and also very fun to make.

In our planning we had to consider props, sound, lighting, locations and costume. As a group we thought that a simple mask, logo and cape would be sufficient for representing the superhero. For the overall theme of the film we wanted to portray it as a spoof and make it funny. This is what encouraged us to use tinfoil and card to make our costume. :) As a result after planning and making up a storyboard we found that we only needed a couple of props. This included a halo (made out of tinfoil), a pencil and some paper. We wanted the location to be set in town but away from the public so that we could work well and not be distracted. We chose for the location of the outside scenes to be by a busy road to show that he was constantly in the public eye but also somewhere where there weren't very many members of the public. As a time period we thought that the 1960's could be when he was in his prime and very famous. We portrayed this by using music such as, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.

Thriller from Maartje Weijers on Vimeo.

This film is a short film made by a media student. The camera angles in the film create suspense and tension. She has used camera angles such as close ups, long shots, medium shots and tilting. the tilting of the camera was especially effective as it looks frantic and panicky, therefore offering suspense. Angles such as, low angles, close ups, long shots, birds eye views and fast zooming in and out are used to create suspense and tension. The location of the scene is cold and sterile which adds to the mood of the video.

Weather Films

18th September 09

As I have just started a creative media course at Bath College this is my first attempt with a camera making films! (ahhhhh scary!) In our first lesson with Jo, our film teacher, we had to make three short films portraying the weather. We had to think about how we could capture the weather in our films, this had to be achieved using three different shots of, close up, long shot and medium shot. In the first scene we (Me, Jadine and Charlie) wanted to capture winter, to achieve this we took a close up of Jadine shivering and wrapped up in a scarf and hat. In the second shot was a long shot of me walking away with an umbrella in order to show that it was raining. The last shot was a medium shot of the sun shining through the trees. As this was our first attempt at making films I feel like we completed the task really well. the close up of Jadine was our most successful film as it really got across to our audience just how cold the weather was. Our second shot didnt work very well as there was no rain as it was sunny on the day we filmed. the last shot had a really good affect as the sun shining through the leaves gave the feel of a warm sunshiny day.