Planing Preliminary Match Cut Exrecise

In this lesson each group was given the same task to create a short clip where a character must open a door, walk into the room, sit opposite another character and share a speech of dialogue. this clip must have some essentials cut to its which were one match cut, shot/reverse shot and illustrating an understanding of the 180 degree rule.

there was no Requirement of what this clip had to be about or what sort of genre it had to be, it did not have to be a thriller. the purpose of this clip was to learn how to use the camera and learn how to get all the successful cuts like a match cut which we achieved successfully. we had many ideas when we sat down and had to come up with a short clip but we decided to opp for a briefcase swap where there would not be no set speech we would just make it up on the spot but the main purpose was to make this clip a smooth edit.

Our story board shows an suspicious character walk down the corridor and walk up to a coded door, of which is zoomed into when the code is entered. when this charter enters the code he walks into the room and sees another character sitting down at a table waiting for his arrival. during the conversation between the two characters a brief case is swapped. once the character has the brief case he leaves the room quickly and starts to hurry down the corridor with the briefcase.

this exercise was a useful exercise to teach us how to use the camera and to make a short clip with the key essentials which we all achieved. this exercise also helped us to gain confidence in our groups as in this activity we had to share responsibility for preparation for our thriller title sequence.

Skills Audit: Creation of Titles

The titles of a film are very important in establishing a mood. The different factors that make the titles so important include font, colour, case (upper or lower) and the format (narrative opening with titles running throughout; a discrete title sequence; titles on a plain background).

To make our titles, we used the text tool that already exists within Final Cut Pro. This is because it had the exact font that we required, and it was easier to manipulate text within the film if it was created within Final Cut Pro.

In our title sequence, we decided to combine the format of narrative opening with titles running throughout with titles on a plain background. This was to change the pace of our title sequence, as the titles on a plain background make the sequence more disjointed. This creates suspense, as the audience wants to carry on watching the film, but a title gets in the way.

We also decided to use a font that looks like a typewriter. It is a serif font, which connotes serious underlying themes. This is because our thriller is supposed to be a political conspiracy thriller - the government are involved in serious issues, so we used a 'serious' font. We also decided to put the titles in white, as it shows up over all the footage.

When the titles of the starring roles appear, a camera shutter sounds. This is to emphasise the freeze frame that occurs on each starring role. We chose to put a freeze frame in to make the audience pay attention to each of the characters.

Rough Cut - The Briefcase

This is the first rough cut to our thriller 'The Briefcase'. There are still some technical glitches in it (in terms of editing and continuity of the titles).

Camera Equiptment Tutorial

During this tutorial, we was introduced to the camera's and equiptment we will be working with in order to produce our thriller clips. We were firstly shown and told what each part of the camera was called. We were then showed how to insert our memory cards, how to zoom the camera, get the lense into focus ect.
We then were then told the safety regulations for the equpitment, which were:

• Making sure all bolts were tightened properly on the tripod before inserting the camera onto it
  
• Making sure the camera was secure on top of the tripod before letting go.
  Carry the equiptment responsibly.

Analysis of 9 shots from art of the title sequence

The style of the titles themselves reflect the point in time which the film portrays. The way the titles are written look like they have been handwritten with a quill and ink that would have been used in that period of time. Also the background of the titles have a 'old parchment' appearance which further represents the period of time the film is set in. The titles shown on this image gives the title of the film, the people who wrote the screenplay, the story its based on, the executive producers, music producers, warner bros production and the director who is Guy Richie. The main types of shots that were used in the images were mid shots and mid close up, especially on the top left image of sherlock holmes, played by Robert Downey Jr.
I really like this title sequence because it fits exactly with the time of which the film was set in and it really carried on the whole theme of the film. Also the style of writing is very effective and it really makes the ending of the film even better. It even keeps the audience wanting to see the rest of the credits.

Match Cut

In today's lesson me and my group were given the task to plan our match cut film.

We were given the brief to have one person walking into a room in order to converse with another person.

We were given a storyboard and we decided to have the situation of Me going to see a a man with a breifcase.

We decided to start the scene with an overall shot of the door and me walking into shot, which then lead on to shots such as an Extreme Close Up of My hand pushing down the handle. Then we decided on a Close Up of Goerge's face then a piont of view shot of goerge telling me to take a seat. We then planned to have a Medium shot of the scene of me and Goerge which has me asking him if he has the stuff. After that there is a close up of goerge giving me the breifcase. We then have a shot reverse shot between me and Goerge. We then show a close up of me leaving the room with them breifcase. the final shot was a close of me then running out of shot.

Cameras and health and safety tutorial

In this tutorial we were taught how to use the camera as well as the precautions we need to take while using the camera. We were shown how the camera works, what buttons we need to use while filming to get the best possible results. We were shown how to use the tripod and how to place the camera safely on the tripod. We were shown how to focus the camera, where the slot is for the memory card.

While we was in this lesson we learnt rules we have to stick to when filming our opening title sequence for our thrillers such as if it rains we should take umbrellas to cover the camera because if the camera was to get wet it would break and we would not be able to film. when we film we should not touch the lens otherwise you could get fingerprints on the lens which means it will ruin the quality of our film as fingerprints will be over the screen and also finally we should close the lens we are finished and make sure it is turned off otherwise the battery will run out.

There were many safety precautions we were told to take. One was to make sure we don't put our hands or the fingers on the camera lens because it would affect the quality of the filming. Another one was to make sure the camera was placed on the tripod properly as it might fall off. We were also told to open up the tripod properly because if it was not open properly then it might be unbalanced and unsecure.