poster ideas

Here are two of the images that the team took earlier. I uploaded them to my photobucket account online and edited them, making them into possible posters or dvd covers. An idea i had for the name of the movie was ' Abandoned? ' this is as it is of a student who goes into school to realise that it is empty and to find he might be being followed which links in nicely in my opinion.

taking photos for movie poster, dvd cover etc

today the group went around the school taking photos for the movie poster, dvd cover etc. we decided that I am going to be the main actor so pictures were taken of me around the school walking around and looking frightened. the pictures have been uploaded and emailed to our home adresses, we are going to all have gos at editing them later to make them look good and as scary as possible.

possible influences for the idea

A really useful influence that came across me when I was thinking of influences for our idea was a movie called '28 days later' this movie is about a city (London) which has been destroyed by zombies. It links in with the idea we had as it is a horror with many shots of empty landscapes. I will have to watch the movie sometime soon for shot ideas, sound effects etc.

thoughts on the next stage

We are nearing the end of our second continuity piece now and are starting to think about what our actual opening 2 minutes of our movie will be. An idea that has been passed around is a student who is walking to school where no one is to be seen and when the student reaches school they realise no one is there either and everything has been messed up and that he thinks he is being followed. It is a good idea which will probably be used and will hopefully allow a selection of good shots.

continuity piece 2 work

Today we strung together the clips I filmed for the second continuity piece. we watched all the clips taken and decided which ones to use. We then grouped all the successful shots together, ready for editing but unfortunately we did not have time to do so, so it will have to be done next lesson.

finished continuity piece 1

Here is the first continuity piece we did completed.

continued work on continuity piece 2

today we continued to work on our second continuity piece. I was the camera man again and excercised the shots again, including extreme close ups, jump cuts and tracking shot. the actors were amin, idris, wasil and we brought an outside actor in as well who was blake. Idris was the director. many shots were taken which we hope will be better than the first continuity when we string them together next time.

continuity piece 2

Today we also started filming our second continuity piece. I was the filmer and excercised some camera skills again. I developed a sturdy hand while following characters, shot smooth consistent speed pans and took a canted shot which panned and then straightened out at the end.

editing continuity piece

today our group uploaded the video clips that we took and edited them into an actual small movie. special effects were added such as text which said 'continuity at the beggining of the piece as well as fading transitions to different clips.

CONTINUITY PIECE

Today we took the cameras out of the classroom to film for the first time. We did a continuity piece in which we took several shots of a member of our group, Amin, walking down a set of stairs and entering a room, we excercised many different angles and shots such as pedding, crabbing and panning.

shown film examples for inspiration

The other week, In class we were looking at a variety of short films produced by other media students. we were shown some really good ones and were told and discussed why they scored highly. we also watched videos that weren't so good which didn't score so highly and again told and discussed the reasons for the grades they got. There were a variety of genres amongst the opening scenes and as we are doing a horror, it began to get me started on thinking what will be shown in my teams film opening. I will post any good ideas I have.

The camera

The camera that each media group was given is called the JVC Everio GZ-HD40.

We were told we were lucky to be given them as they are very expensive and advanced cameras.

Some of the useful advantages include the fact when the film is uploaded, it is uploaded in the separate sections that they were filmed in which will save a lot of time when editing.

Here are the specifications of the camera :

Recording Format:
Hard Drive
Optical Zoom:
10x
HDD Size:
120 GB
Weight:
0.54 kg
Audio format:
5.1 Surround Sound
Optical Zoom:
10x
Digital Zoom:
200x
Lens Focal Length:
4.5 - 45 mm
Filter Diameter:
43 mm

camera shots, angles and movements

Here is just a slide that our fantastic media teacher Mr Hady displayed for us on the interactive whiteboard to help explain them and so that we could try them out.

tehniques the team used

Pan - you are actually turning (circular motion/carved)
Crab - straight line movement
Track - you are following
Zoom - increase the lense (camera is stationary)

White balancing is something we learned also. It is when you show something white, preferably a white sheet of paper. This will allow it to recognise and register that it is the colour white. The result will be a much better quality.

We all practised different techniques, but in particular I practised the birds eye view shot, the worms eye view, panning left, zooming in and out [lens], the ped up ad tilting up.

It was a good experience and it worked alright for the first try, however think me and my team I will need more time to develop my skills. But I look forward to working with them again and strengthen the steadiness of my hand as it was a slight problem.

practising with the cameras

Today we started using the cameras and practising the techniques inside of the classroom.
the main aim of the double lesson was to learn the basic features and improve our shot awareness.
Sizes, angles and movement
-shots are comprized of how much you can see per shot
-we must show a variety of shots, angles and movements

new cameras arrive

Today we were intoduced to the new cameras we are going to be using.
We were told about the features such as its battery life which is 2 hours long, the focus options, zoom features, its full HD broadcasting quality, light options and sound options. I am very excited to start using them as a group and producing some good quality footage.