Moving Image Entry 6 - Kevin Ross:

Date:09/03/2014
Module: Moving Image El342
Kent University

Team 07:

vp216 - Viknesh Prabhakar
kr278 - Kevin Ross
cb595 - Connor Brown
Tws6 - Thomas Stowell

Research Into filming and sound recording techniques:

Film:

A long or an extreme long shot: usually used as an establishing shot to display the scene. Its a zoomed out shot to display the whole landscape. Even though its usually used at the beginning of films I believe that this will be a useful technique we could use in various parts of our film. At one stage it will be useful to display our forest since its a large landscape, and secondly to display the Elliot building.




A full shot:  contains a complete view of the characters to display either their apparel or their relationship with each other. This kind of shot will be useful to display the kind of interaction between our main character and the antagonistic travel guards or drug dealer.






A mid shot:  This shot also contains the characters however can focus on an individual too. From this shot, viewers can see the characters' faces more clearly as well as their interaction with other characters. This is also known as a social shot. I find that this kind of shot will be useful throughout our film , for scenes where the main actor is waking up or walking to the forest to see his expressions with how he interacts with other characters or environment . It could be useful for fight scenes , when he is on the phone or making breakfast.



A close-up  is used to close up on one characters face. This enables us to see emotions that the actor is going through to then allow us viewers to start sympathising. This is also known as a personal shot.I find that in the emotional scene of our film, when Dom finds out about his illness, this kind of shot will be useful to express how shocked and distraught his is about the news.



Adding to this , An extreme close-up  contains one part of a character's face or other object. This kind of shot also creates the same effect on a stronger and deeper scale. We could use this to see our actors lip or chin wobble as he speaks back on the phone to represent his sadness. These shots are effective in allowing the viewer to understand our character.




Others:

Bridging shot: A shot used to cover a jump in time. This kind of shot may be necessary for us to transition from the present to the future. The time travel scene where the actor jumps into the pond and out into the future is a good scene for us to use this shot in.

Tilt shots: These are shots that Pan from below the torso upwards to the character face. Its good for introducing a character, usually for shock value. Introducing the Time police for second time for shock o the drug dealer for the first time may require a shot like this in our film.

Mixing focal lengths: This allows us in a scene to make one character dominate over the other, therefore one character appear clear in the foreground unlike the other character in the background. This sort of shot would be useful in a scene such as where the actor takes the drug with the drug dealer behind him.

Sound:

Diegetic: The real sounds, sounds that you would assume to be on screen due to what is occurring on screen. These can include :

-Extra Diegetic: Sounds that don't originate from a permanent source. So we could use car effects in the area we want to represent as our busy town area or we could use bird effects in our forest. It allows the viewer to immerse into the surrounding even though its not visible on screen.

-Effects: artificially enhanced sounds to improve a diegetic sound on screen by emphasizing the sound. In our film such effects could be used for where there may be gunshots, phone ringing or the actor jumping into the water. I think it would be highly useful on that last one since we wont actually see him land in the water however the sound effect will give the sensation he does.
These SFX will be mentioned in our script so that actors can act accordingly to them.

Non-diegetic: Sounds non visible on screen or due to any actions these include:

-Theme music: A piece of music that may appear several times in the film. Something like this could be used in our film to represent each time something bad or sad is about to occur, It could also be used to represent each time the travelling through time is happening.
From having looked into the scenes of our video, I believe a good song for instants could be "hurt" covered by Johnny Cash or the Nine inch nail version is also suitable since its sad yet dark and suspicious sounding. I think that it could start playing in the background whilst we zoom in into Dom's face when he receives the call and is sad. Then starts playing as the main audio file as he walks out to his suicide location, song will stop once he arrives. Then further in the film the song could appear in a scene such as him being hurt or chased by any of the antagonists. Also another suitable location would be when he is taking the drug to cure himself.  Therefore it will appear in moments of misery.

Johnny cash version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aF9AJm0RFc
Nine inch Nails Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htmKZKR7oyc

The lyrics of this song relate to our film too, even though it can be seen more of a love song Parts like these convey something towards our film:

"I hurt myself today"
Will relate to him committing suicide or taking drugs.

 

"To see if I still feel, I focus on the pain ".

 Talking about his illness and how suicide is the only option for him.

 

"The only thing that is still real"

Maybe we could make this time travel just appear as an illusion where in reality his is a drug addict hallucinating in his apartment. This could give way to a possible ending message about not using drugs, a commercial video.

Or keep it at that he just realises that his is still ill even after time travel and that's all that bothers him.

 

"I remember everything!"

He could be Waking up to reality or him remembering his is ill after time travel.

 

"What have become. My sweetest friend. Every one goes away in the end."

Talking about him dying and wasting away to drugs.

 

"You can have it all. My empire of dirt."

This could relate to his bad living condition, his bad house, lack of food and poor health.

 

"I just want you"

He just wants the healthy life put back into him.

-Voiceovers: An off camera commentary which is placed on top of a film at any desired point. It can be used to create the setting. Example: " once upon a time ..."
Even though I don't think this kind of technique could be useable in our film , we may wish for the characters thoughts to appear on film so if they do this will be the technique to use.
I have been doing some voice acting for an upcoming game, I shall talk about this in a later blog once I have finished. However I have found that if we do some voice work I will be suited for doing it. Such example could be at the end of our video , we could convey a message such as about taking drugs is bad for you.

Films I recently watched with filming methods and ideas from them:

300 rise of an empire:

-Positives: Having watched this film one defining attribute are the colours and Dark atmosphere used. In the film the exposure is more monotone than anything else. This gives it a dark sinister feel like other films such as sin city. I think that a feature that this could be well used in our film especially in really sad scenes such as Dom walking to his site of suicide. Slow down effects are in constant use during this film too, it can enhance fight or flight scenes making the action more intense and eye catching. I think that we could possibly use this technique when Dom runs away or fights to emphasise the punishment and torment he is living. Close ups are also a common scene in this film and are well executed, they portray the specific features of the actors face to show how they feel. As mentioned before we will use similar techniques in our film for the phone scene.

-Negatives:  What I had observed however with 300 was that there was too much repletion in action slow down effects and CGI this made the film a bit surreal and at times off-putting. This is a good thing to recognize since it helps us to establish to use various filming techniques opposed to a reoccurring one.

Winters Tale:

-Positives: The way this film helps contribute to ours was that it conveyed emotions really well with the correct music facial expression and script. All crucial to making the viewer feel sorry for the Character.
Another thing to mention is that in this film their is a time change of around 100 years and it  is quick and simple. It is done through a tilt shot from the character to the sky and back down to the character. We could do something similar with out film like a shot down to the characters reflection in the lake and back up to the new time period. 

-Negatives: The downfall with a romance film like this was it was a bit predictable at times even with the shocks at some parts. It made me feel like I knew what was going to happen before it happened where a good twist could have been well executed to prevent this.
In our film instead of the typical happy ending we could shock the audience by making it end all poorly or something else just to add a bit less predictability in the film and keep viewers on the edge of the seat.

Lone survivor:

- Positives: This film was beneficial to me for watching since it included many sound effects. This was good practice to me to see what effects are best to keep standing out to show the atmosphere and setting of what is occurring. Some sound effects shall be used in our film. There was a good use of full shots to show all the main characters and allow us to see who was doing what, I have observed these shots were good in moments of action or full cast interaction thus our action scenes could use these. Lastly there was an element of shock where main characters kept getting casted off unexpectedly. Unlike many film the main characters don't usually die therefore I believe that by doing something similar in our film we could convey a much more potent message.

- Negatives: The plot started becoming somewhat repetitive with characters continuously fighting so too much action and little one on one emphasis with the characters was used. his would be bad for our film since it wont allow us to relate with the emotions felt by our main character.

Her:

-Positives: I found Her to be really entertaining in the way that it was Unique story that hasn't been thought of before. a unique idea is always interesting to watch especially when it includes funny moments like this film. I think that making our film out of the ordinary could increase the attractiveness and is something we shall look out for. Adding to this was the fact that these new unique ideas and aspects were well conveyed and explained to the point it seemed real. We seek for realism in our film since the idea of time travel has not been accomplished yet so it will be necessary to make it seem possible or "appear" to be possible in the case that's It isn't real and just an illusion.

-Negatives: I found that the ending was a bit abrupt and that it could have ended otherwise to convey a better story. I wish to emphasise our film from beginning to end so it is clear what the viewers have watched and so they finish with as much satisfaction as when they started watching

Purpose of my research:

Being the sound producer in our group, I have found that my research will be beneficial in helping me create effective sound with good quality for our film and each of its scenes. It will help me decide how to improve each scene and make it more appealing to the viewer.

Furthermore having researched into different filming techniques, I will share any information with my camera man Tom so we can work together to create a desired effect and atmosphere for our scene, where sound and video footage can be modified in correlation with each other.

Having watched new blockbuster films, I have recognized effects and styles of recording we may wish to add to our film to make it more appealing to the demanding public. I believe things such as the slowing down time techniques used in 300 as well as the dark atmosphere may be useful in our film about running out of time, since slowing time itself relates to the "time" style we need to follow and the dark atmosphere relates to our forest scene.

Furthermore comedic skits observed from films such as kick ass 2 and moments that captivate the audience to feel in films such as Winters tale will help make our film more emotional and on-going to keep everyone watching.

As for music, listening to some end sound tracks from several of these films I have watched I believe it may be wise to do so in our credits to give it more of a professional feel, also I have found it is good for telling the story too, thus the researched has helped me understand what kinds of music are needed for each scene such as metal for a fight scene or piano music for a sad scene.