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Mood board

Media Mood Board

Planning questions on film

1. Is it practical?
Yes it is practical, as we are doing it at emmas houseso its easy access. Also we are doing it inside her house house so we wont have a problem with the weather. We do have the first bit out side all we need to do for this is make sure we film at the right time as we want it to be the right lighting. Also all the props we are using for example a knife are house hold objects. Again easy access. We manage to do all the makeup and costume ourselves so we didnt having to worry about that. With both of the actors living near by and close friends we were able to depend on them to be when we needed to film.
2. Is it an idea that works to the strengths of the group?
I think it works to the strengths of our group as we are all interested in this kind of genre. Which means we all watch lots of films with the same genre so we could all give a good eye to the opening. I think within our group we all gave different qualities. For example Rob's i found was quite motivational in the idea thinking stage as he had a variety of different genres of a film opening to do . I think Emma brought good organisation skills. Especially with the setting be at her house she had to organize alot of things. I would say my strengths were thinking of abstract camera shots and also simplifying the film opening so we made sure it was a film opening and not a mini film.
3. Will it show off the skills you have learnt so far on the course?
Yes as it will show shots like over the shoulder shots and keeping to the 180 degree rule, which we had to include in our preliminary task. It will also show a range of varied and interesting shots. Which we have found out through out the course, when again doing our preliminary task. We have also learnt about different things that you can let the audience in on and not. This is shown through different camera shots and different characters/ objects that connote this suspicion. An example of this will be when we have the girl have a flashback to her with a knife stabbing someone. Then at the end of the opening after it has showed her getting more crazy we have her mum coming in with the knife in the camera shot and her mum saying "whats wrong Susie".
4. Is it something you can reasonably shoot and edit in the time available?
Yes as we have planned all our shots our in thumbnails in a storyboard so there is no messing around with camera shots. We know ho we are doing the makeup. We also organized two nights to do it in. When then planned to use the practical lessons to edit in. To help in the lesson time we have set targets fro when we will have things done by. To stick to these targets we will work all lesson and if we don't finish we will go into break or lunch time.
5. Can you get access/ permission to shoot in the chosen location at the chosen times?
As we are using Emma's house she was able to ask her parents if we could film. She negotiated what night would be best for them as they were able to be out of the house. We worked this out to be on the on the Tuesday and Thursday. We were also able to arrange the time at night which is when we needed it in order to create our setting.
6. Can you organise lighting to use in that location?
The lighting was seen as one of our problems as we wanted to get the contrast of being dark so it would keep with the theme of quite sinister, but not to dark so we were able to see clearly. So we asked Emma what kind of lighting she had and she said it should be alright as in the kitchen where we are doing most of our filming have lots of scattered lighting which wasnt to bright. At one point where "Susie" is having the flash back we need to use a torch to create a flickering effect. This was to indicate that her dream was restless.
7. Have you included dialogue? If so, will it work to shoot conversation in that location?
We had a group decision at the start of thinking of this idea that we wouldnt have any dialogue apart from what her mum says at the end. We thought of doing this because we watched a few other sinster opening clips and when they used dialogue it wasnt effective enough to creat tension.
8. Do you have guaranteed high quality reliable actors to play the characters?
We have decided to use our friends who stubdy drama at A level. Our reasons for doing this is because as the are our friends tehy are more likely not going to cancel on us. Also we know from working in dramam with them as well that they are good at acting. They also live near by which is helpul as they are able to get to Emma's house.

Production of the Soloist

The story of the soloist came from a LA newspaper, this means its a real life story. To create this realism in the film they used real homeless people that lived there.
The question was asked to "Joe Wright" the producer "how can you have a film without an ending", his answer to this was that he wanted to create a realistic film , including real characteristics of a man with schizophrenia and also didnt want to have a typical happily ever after, as do all hollywood films. It think by doing this it will shock the audience as it will not be expected.
Jamie Fox i think think must have been his most challenging role as "Joe" really wanted him to portray this character right. This is a big risk and and really tested Jamie as they didnt want to offend anyone who had this condition by not doing it right. Therefore this is a very sensitive topic to be doing.
Joe commented that the more he goes to America the more he doesnt understand it. This is the kind of feeling that he wanted his actors to feel when they were acting, this sort of uncertainty.

The Maccabees xray

We first see a high angle shot with two men in white body suits, this connotes that they are some form of doctor doing the xray. They have then used lots of different shots of different coloured pins this relates to the different colours that you see in an xray. As when you imagine and xray you imagine a black back ground with lots of illuminous colours. They have linked these shots by using a flashing effect from one shot to the other, this again relates to an xray as in an xray they take lots of shots of the particular part of your body and this makes a big flash. After this they swap the scene of the two men to doing the same thing out side but with the two men wearing normal casual clothes, this could connote the inside and outside of the body. The clip then changes to a close up of a mans tshirt and different clips of red dots in different places.

Through out the whole music video they have have used jump cuts .In order to create this fastforward , jump cut motion it looks like they have taken many video clips and sped them up, like the one of the two men. Then other cases like the pins on the wall and the red dots on the man tshirt, it looks like they have taken camera shots and created an motion.

In the first shot it shows a clear use of cutaways with it starting the two men in suits and then it cuts to the pins then back to the first shot they also realte to each other.

I think in this music video they have tried to inlude a narrative. As it has two parts to it. The first half is with the men laying out the patteren on thr floor then they have used flashe of the pins, but it builds up so the first flash will be of one pin and then it will build up to more pins. In the middle to this it has a fade out clip to black, it then starts the second part with the pins and then includes the tshirt and the red spots this relates to the pins as it is very similar.