Thursday 9 February 2012
Script
There is no script within my two minute opening because I have decided that I will use non diegetic sound to set the mood and ambiance of the scene. I also wanted to simply just set the location and introduce the character as shown in Forrest Gump and so looking at other drama films has influenced me to come to this decision.
Risk Assesment
I have assessed the location in which my filming will take place and there are not to my knowledge too many high risks that need to be documented however there are a few smaller risks that need to be acknowledged.
1. The fact there has been a snowfall recently has therefore resulted in icy conditions within the outside filming around the location. Because of this, anyone involved within the filming must acknowledge that sensible footwear and clothing will be needed to ensure safety.
2.
Parts of the opening have been filmed in neglected land such as fields and so there is a strong chance of the possibility of nettles and thistles. This has been acknowledged and the company recommend that again attention is taken to wear clothing that covers all parts of the body as well as sensible footwear and first aid will be to hand offering a selection of anti-sting sprays if anyone is harmed after taking the above precautions.
Parts of the opening have been filmed in neglected land such as fields and so there is a strong chance of the possibility of nettles and thistles. This has been acknowledged and the company recommend that again attention is taken to wear clothing that covers all parts of the body as well as sensible footwear and first aid will be to hand offering a selection of anti-sting sprays if anyone is harmed after taking the above precautions.
3. Within the scenes that are shot in the house there are single steps throughout the building aside from the actual staircase. This has been acknowledged resulting in the awareness of the steps for camera men/women if they are walking backwards or doing quick movement shots.
Roles of the group
Because there is only me within my group i have taken on all the roles of directing, filming and editing. These rolls have challenged me to become confident with a variety of tasks and have developed my skills within film studies very vastly.
Shooting Schedule
Saturday 4th Feb - I shot all of my landscape and location stills today. Using the tripod was easy and helped the shots look like true stills however, I did occur some problems when i wanted to shoot shots that were higher up or at different angles as the tripod did not always adjust to how i wanted it too and so consequently some of my shots have become slightly shaky. However I tried to overcome this by keeping a steady hand and when editing I have cut out the sections that are not to a higher quality.
Wednesday 8th Feb - Yesterday i filmed the shots within the house that again built up location and established the setting. This filming also started to build up character types as peoples houses often show a lot about the family within them. The filming within the young girls room was also done yesterday which used the mise en scene to build up the characters background and personality and let the spectator establish their own opinion of how the character will be.
At first I found filming quite hard as the camera took some time to get adjusted too but as soon as i got used to using it, i started to experiment with a variety of shots and became more confident within my filming.
Wednesday 8th Feb - Yesterday i filmed the shots within the house that again built up location and established the setting. This filming also started to build up character types as peoples houses often show a lot about the family within them. The filming within the young girls room was also done yesterday which used the mise en scene to build up the characters background and personality and let the spectator establish their own opinion of how the character will be.
At first I found filming quite hard as the camera took some time to get adjusted too but as soon as i got used to using it, i started to experiment with a variety of shots and became more confident within my filming.
Narrative
My narrative is fairly simple as my film is a two minute opening to the beginning of a film and when researching and looking at other drama films it is clear that there is not any in depth narrative shown within the first two minutes and instead the titles are normally incorporated and a clear location is set as well as an introduction to a character(s).
Forrest Gump shows this beginning narrative well by following a feather throughout a location by panning with the camera whilst the titles are dissolving up onto the screen and then Tom Hanks' character is slowly introduced using the mise en scene playing close detail to his clothes and shoes and immediately building up a sense of character and making the spectator immediately have assumptions of the man they are seeing and opinions of his character. As he opens up his suitcase we also learn more about the character and become intrigued to understand why he is where he is and what has brought him there. The attention to detail is key within this opening as there is no dialogue used and so the filming by the director has to speak for itself and use the non diagetic sound of the soundtrack in the background and the mise en scene specifically to catch the spectators attention and tell us key elements about the film and character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7voy1vit6Y
Looking at this opening to Forrest Gump is very inspiring to my own opening as I don't want to use any dialogue myself within the first two minutes and instead want the filming to do the talking for me. I plan to start the opening off with still shots that fade into each other of the location of the film and these will last up to around 30 seconds. Towards the end of the still shots a house will be shown and after this I want to use a variety of shots to lead the spectator throughout the house using the key attention to detail within mise en scene to show the location of the first scene and the type of setting my film will be based around. I then will wind around the house and up the stairs to come to a bedroom that will again my panned around as well as separate edited shots cutting between each other to build up the background knowledge of the character that I want to introduce. This will then result in the slow entering of the character that will be a young girl sat on her bed with toys scattered around her playing.
I don't want the narrative within this first beginning scene to be too complicated as a plot as it is simply the beginning two minutes and as I have seen throughout researching my drama genre films there is never anything that occurs to normally shock the audience like say thrillers or action films within this first two minutes. So instead I decided for a typical opening of a location established and a wide range of mise en scene to build up the location as well as the character and then the small introduction of the character.
Forrest Gump shows this beginning narrative well by following a feather throughout a location by panning with the camera whilst the titles are dissolving up onto the screen and then Tom Hanks' character is slowly introduced using the mise en scene playing close detail to his clothes and shoes and immediately building up a sense of character and making the spectator immediately have assumptions of the man they are seeing and opinions of his character. As he opens up his suitcase we also learn more about the character and become intrigued to understand why he is where he is and what has brought him there. The attention to detail is key within this opening as there is no dialogue used and so the filming by the director has to speak for itself and use the non diagetic sound of the soundtrack in the background and the mise en scene specifically to catch the spectators attention and tell us key elements about the film and character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7voy1vit6Y
Looking at this opening to Forrest Gump is very inspiring to my own opening as I don't want to use any dialogue myself within the first two minutes and instead want the filming to do the talking for me. I plan to start the opening off with still shots that fade into each other of the location of the film and these will last up to around 30 seconds. Towards the end of the still shots a house will be shown and after this I want to use a variety of shots to lead the spectator throughout the house using the key attention to detail within mise en scene to show the location of the first scene and the type of setting my film will be based around. I then will wind around the house and up the stairs to come to a bedroom that will again my panned around as well as separate edited shots cutting between each other to build up the background knowledge of the character that I want to introduce. This will then result in the slow entering of the character that will be a young girl sat on her bed with toys scattered around her playing.
I don't want the narrative within this first beginning scene to be too complicated as a plot as it is simply the beginning two minutes and as I have seen throughout researching my drama genre films there is never anything that occurs to normally shock the audience like say thrillers or action films within this first two minutes. So instead I decided for a typical opening of a location established and a wide range of mise en scene to build up the location as well as the character and then the small introduction of the character.
Films within the drama genre
I researched into the drama genre to gain more knowledge on films that a specifically in the same genre as my own. There were many to choose from and it is clear that a drama based film is very popular incurring huge gross profit and that the films made within drama are seen as very mainstream and can be directed at a wide range of audiences. Some of the films I researched are stated below and have a brief description with them explaining the narrative (storyline) that is the key element in showing that the film is a genre as the storyline matches the wide description given in the post before on 'Genre'.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Shawshank Redemption 1994
Director: Frank Darabont
Writers: Stephen King (short story "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption"), Frank Darabont (screenplay)
Stars: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman and Bob Gunton
Storyline: Andy Dufresne is a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically when he is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Set in the 1940's, the film shows how Andy, with the help of his friend Red, the prison entrepreneur, turns out to be a most unconventional prisoner.
Forrest Gump 1994
Director: Robert ZemeckisWriters: Winston Groom (novel), Eric Roth (screenplay)
Stars: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Gary Sinise
Forrest, Forrest Gump is a simple man with a low IQ but good intentions. He is running through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His 'mama' teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins medals, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, starts a ping-pong craze, create the smiley, write bumper stickers and songs, donating to people and meeting the president several times. However this is all irrelevant to Forrest who can only think of his childhood sweetheart Jenny. Who has messed up her life. Although in the end all he wants to prove is that anyone can love anyone.
Fight Club 1999
Fight Club 1999Director: David Fincher
Writers: Chuck Palahniuk (novel), Jim Uhls (screenplay)
Stars:Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter
A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.
All of these films have the same basic drama genre storyline and have helped me in being influenced within my own work to understand the narrative and genre more deeply.
Genre
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena.[1] Drama is the most broad of movies genres and includes subgenres as romantic drama, sport films, period drama, courtroom drama and crime.[1]
At the center of a drama is usually a character or characters who are in conflict at a crucial moment in their lives. They often revolve around families; movies like Ordinary People dig under the skin of everyday life to ask big questions and touch on the deepest emotions of normal people. Dramas often, but not always, have tragic or at least painful resolutions and concern the survival of some tragic crisis, like the death of a family member (Terms of Endearment), or a divorce (Kramer vs Kramer). Some of the greatest screen performances come from dramas, as there is ample opportunity for actors to stretch into a role that most other genres cannot afford.[2]
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Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_film
Above is the definition of the drama genre and this is the genre that I will be using in my first film.
At the center of a drama is usually a character or characters who are in conflict at a crucial moment in their lives. They often revolve around families; movies like Ordinary People dig under the skin of everyday life to ask big questions and touch on the deepest emotions of normal people. Dramas often, but not always, have tragic or at least painful resolutions and concern the survival of some tragic crisis, like the death of a family member (Terms of Endearment), or a divorce (Kramer vs Kramer). Some of the greatest screen performances come from dramas, as there is ample opportunity for actors to stretch into a role that most other genres cannot afford.[2]
-
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_film
Above is the definition of the drama genre and this is the genre that I will be using in my first film.
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