Scene One - Alfie comes home, unlocks door. Walks straight through to living room, kicks shoes and bag off. Turns on TV. 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' is playing, and the 'basilisk'* appears on screen. Alfie cringes away from TV and runs out of room. See him running upstairs.
Scene Two - Alfie is upstairs getting changed and he looks at the bed. Snakes begin appearing all over his bed and Alfie freaks out. Hears his mum and dad come home, so he goes back downstairs.
Scene Three - His mum and dad have bought a new pet snake - Alfie's worst nightmare. He tells them he doesn't like snakes and won't hold the snake. He goes upstairs.
Scene Four - Alfie is laid in bed reading a book when mum comes in to say goodnight. They talk about why he doesn't like snakes.
Scene 5 - Alfie has a dream where snakes are chasing him, and he is running away. Snake eventually catches up with him and comforts him. Alfie seems happy.
Scene Six - Alfie wakes up in his bed, goes downstairs and wants to hold his snake. He is no longer scared.
Friday, 26 November 2010
Monday, 15 November 2010
Equilibruim
This is how we will use Equilibruim throughout the short film:
1. Equilibrium - Alfie gets home
2. Disequilibrium - Parents aren't there
3. Makes himself at home - turns on telly - 'Anaconda' is playing
4. Parents come home - equilibrium should be ok, but they have a new pet snake
5. Sleeps and dreams a scary dream of his pet snake chasing him
6. Wake up and holds his pet snake first time. And feels safe - equilibrium is restored. character has gone on a journey that will enrich his life.
1. Equilibrium - Alfie gets home
2. Disequilibrium - Parents aren't there
3. Makes himself at home - turns on telly - 'Anaconda' is playing
4. Parents come home - equilibrium should be ok, but they have a new pet snake
5. Sleeps and dreams a scary dream of his pet snake chasing him
6. Wake up and holds his pet snake first time. And feels safe - equilibrium is restored. character has gone on a journey that will enrich his life.
Change of Plan
Today in Media we have decided we are now using a snake instead of a spider because it is more easily accessible for us. We also feel children are more inclined to be scared of snakes than spiders. We can now get rid of the Nursery Rhyme book which simplifies some of our problems, and we have a pet snake at our decided setting, which is used to being handled. We will have the 1997 film 'Anaconda' playing on the TV, as this relates well to snakes, obviously. And we can also have the boy dreaming his pet snake eats him, just like in the film 'Anaconda'. This simplifies our lack of spider films available. We have to do some re-shooting anyway, so changing the plot line isn't too complicated for us, it doesn't change our schedule. We plan to film at the weekend, and can start on the animation dream sequence this week.
Thursday, 4 November 2010
4/11/10 Media
Today in Media, Lainey, Keri and I have decided to do the script for our short film. We are going to start writing it by hand but later go on to edit it on a script maker and upload it to blogspot.
Monday, 1 November 2010
1/11/2010
Today in Media Studies I was researching on how to animate and found this website: http://www.howcast.com/videos/213929-How-To-Animate-in-Adobe-Flash
I found this very useful as Adobe Flash CS4 is a fairly simple program to use, it has a step by step guide and a video consisting on everything you need. This should hopefull make the process of making animated sequences in the film a lot easier.
I found this very useful as Adobe Flash CS4 is a fairly simple program to use, it has a step by step guide and a video consisting on everything you need. This should hopefull make the process of making animated sequences in the film a lot easier.
Friday, 22 October 2010
Step Outline
Scene One - Child comes home from school to an empty house. Reads a note from mother explaining she is working late tonight, food in fridge. Various shots of empty house, shows audience he is alone and the time.
Scene Two - Child walks into Lounge and sees the TV playing. He is intrigued, so sits down and just starts to watch it. He doesn't know it is 'Eight Legged Freaks' playing, and he is petrified when a huge spider comes on screen. Runs away. This shows his phobia of spiders.
Scene Three - Child is in bedroom reading Nursery Rhyme book. Is reading Humpty Dumpty aloud. Close-up of book, so audience can see the nursery rhymes he is reading.
Scene Four - Mother comes in and child confesses about the film scaring him. Mother says not to worry about spiders and shows him Incy Wincy Spider. They read it aloud and he falls asleep smiling.
Scene Five - Dream Sequence. He sees a hill and there is a well on top, like in Jack and Jill. (animated) He then blinks and a Shoe appears instead of the well, like There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe. He walks up the hill, and a huge spider appears, like in Incy Wincy Spider. He then runs back down the hill, and falls, breaking in half, like Humpty Dumpty.
Scene Six - The child wakes up and tells him mother about his dream. She tells him not to worry, and that the spider wasn't real. The child realises extra-large spiders are fictional and do not exist. His arachnophobia then subsides and he feels calm again.
Scene Two - Child walks into Lounge and sees the TV playing. He is intrigued, so sits down and just starts to watch it. He doesn't know it is 'Eight Legged Freaks' playing, and he is petrified when a huge spider comes on screen. Runs away. This shows his phobia of spiders.
Scene Three - Child is in bedroom reading Nursery Rhyme book. Is reading Humpty Dumpty aloud. Close-up of book, so audience can see the nursery rhymes he is reading.
Scene Four - Mother comes in and child confesses about the film scaring him. Mother says not to worry about spiders and shows him Incy Wincy Spider. They read it aloud and he falls asleep smiling.
Scene Five - Dream Sequence. He sees a hill and there is a well on top, like in Jack and Jill. (animated) He then blinks and a Shoe appears instead of the well, like There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe. He walks up the hill, and a huge spider appears, like in Incy Wincy Spider. He then runs back down the hill, and falls, breaking in half, like Humpty Dumpty.
Scene Six - The child wakes up and tells him mother about his dream. She tells him not to worry, and that the spider wasn't real. The child realises extra-large spiders are fictional and do not exist. His arachnophobia then subsides and he feels calm again.
Monday, 18 October 2010
18/10/2010
Me and Lainey have discussed possible filming locations. For the child's house we have been told by Alex Featch that we can film at his. This is useful as we now have a good location with a boy's bedroom already set up. It also means that interior light will be much easier to control.
This is Bolton's Bench, New Forest
We have also discussed the possible location for the Jack and Jill part of our film to be filmed at Bolton's Bench in the New Forest. This is useful because it is very close to both of us and has a large hill. It also has a tree at the top which we could use in our film, possibly for lighting and shadows.
This is Bolton's Bench, New ForestSunday, 17 October 2010
17/10/2010
Today Lainey and I have decided it will be a good idea to use elements of live action filming whilst incorporating some animation. We feel the use of animation will be good for two reasons
- It will appeal more to our target audience of children
- it will be easier to incorporate the influence of nursery rhymes into our production
Thursday, 14 October 2010
14/10/2010
Today in media Lainey and I have decided on our actors for our short film. We have also come to the conclusion that aiming it at children would be wise, this is due to the nursery rhyme elements included in the production.
Our actors are:
- Alfie White (Lainey's younger brother) - He is young and therefore a good choice for our main character
- Lainey White - She will play the mother of Alfie's character
- Alex Featch - Alex will possibly play the father of Alfie, his role however is not vital and therefore may not be included in the final production.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Step Outline Planner
Today in media I created a step outline planner, this will help us shape our production dramatically and allow us to see and edit anything we feel won't work.
Monday, 11 October 2010
Nursery Rhymes
'Jack And Jill'
Jack and Jill went up the hill,
to fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
'There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe'
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children she didn't know what to do,
So she gave them some broth without any bread,
And she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.
'Incy Wincy Spider'
Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the water spout,
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out,
Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain,
And Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again.
'Humpty Dumpty'
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
Jack and Jill went up the hill,
to fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
'There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe'
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children she didn't know what to do,
So she gave them some broth without any bread,
And she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.
'Incy Wincy Spider'
Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the water spout,
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out,
Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain,
And Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again.
'Humpty Dumpty'
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
Story Boards
Today in media, Lainey and I started doing our story boards. We have so far drawn the pictures and will start recording how we will do the visuals and the sound. We also did a step outline, Richard Donne showed us how to do these and we have found it to be extremely helpful.
Friday, 8 October 2010
09/10/10
Lainey and I have discussed a new subject for the short film idea. The subject of our short film will be our own take on numerous nursery rhymes. The film will start with a young child reading nursery rhymes before bed. The reason we have chose to do nursery rhymes is due to them not being copy-righted stories; they are also recognised by the majority of the British public.
The plot of the film will go as follows:
o A child laying in bed reading a Nursery Rhyme book
o Mother comes in and the child recalls their scare earlier in the bath when they saw a huge spider - appears as a flashback
o The mother then says not to worry and shows them the Nursery Rhyme 'Incy Wincy Spider'
o The child looks unconvinced and starts to fall asleep
o The child starts to dream (about parks or swimming pools) then it changes suddenly into a nightmare
o They dream of four Nursery Rhymes - 'Jack and Jill', 'There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe', 'Incy Wincy Spider', 'Humpty Dumpty' - and a story forms *
o The child wakes up upset and calls for their mother
o The mother comes in and comforts the child, allowing them to fall asleep uninterrupted
* The story is as follows:
o The child falls into their nightmare, and sees a hill. They start to climb it (influence from 'Jack and Jill')
o When the child reaches the top of the hill, they see a shoe, and believe a woman to live there (influence from 'There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe')
o However, a huge spider appears (influence from 'Incy Wincy Spider')
o The child then runs down the hill and falls, breaking in half (influence from Humpty Dumpty)
We appreciate a lot of planning and research is needed to be done and therefore, some changes may need to be made. However this is our initial idea.
The plot of the film will go as follows:
o A child laying in bed reading a Nursery Rhyme book
o Mother comes in and the child recalls their scare earlier in the bath when they saw a huge spider - appears as a flashback
o The mother then says not to worry and shows them the Nursery Rhyme 'Incy Wincy Spider'
o The child looks unconvinced and starts to fall asleep
o The child starts to dream (about parks or swimming pools) then it changes suddenly into a nightmare
o They dream of four Nursery Rhymes - 'Jack and Jill', 'There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe', 'Incy Wincy Spider', 'Humpty Dumpty' - and a story forms *
o The child wakes up upset and calls for their mother
o The mother comes in and comforts the child, allowing them to fall asleep uninterrupted
* The story is as follows:
o The child falls into their nightmare, and sees a hill. They start to climb it (influence from 'Jack and Jill')
o When the child reaches the top of the hill, they see a shoe, and believe a woman to live there (influence from 'There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe')
o However, a huge spider appears (influence from 'Incy Wincy Spider')
o The child then runs down the hill and falls, breaking in half (influence from Humpty Dumpty)
We appreciate a lot of planning and research is needed to be done and therefore, some changes may need to be made. However this is our initial idea.
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Textual Analysis of Spellbound
I am going to take a look and textually analyse a 1945 film called Spellbound (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvAC3420t5A). It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and features a dream sequence that will be very useful to me and my group whilst we create ours.
The dream sequence starts with a close up of a man, taking a sip from a glass of water. This then cuts to a P.O.V shot with the camera looking in to the glass. This therefore indicates to the spectator that this is the character who will be having the dream.
The next part of this scene, I feel, is very useful. This is because it uses certain techniques to distort the reality of the film. The Blurring of the camera whilst looking through the cup acts as an almost mystical transition, indicating to the audience that something is not right. The fact eyes are being faded in and out whilst the camera zooms, could indicate to the spectator; a form of psychosis. It is also quite intimidating, this is due to the eyes not having any other facial features. This shows a lack of compassion to the spectator and may put them at unease.
The lighting is another key feature in this dream sequence. The lighting in this clip is very dark and low, this enables it to cast large shadows and leave key areas of the scene blacked out. This stops the audience from focusing on anything in particular, which again is very disorientating. The low light and dark places could also indicate a sense of fear and sinister vibes in the dream. This gives it an almost nightmare quality.
Another thing to notice in the dream is the fact there are a lot of people, the problem with these people however is that you can not see their faces or any facial features. This along with the scissors cutting across a large eye can indicate and signify danger to the audience.
At around 00:46 in the clip, the camera tracks slowly over a table and cards. These props are out of proportion to the man sat at the far end (again with blurry facial features). This can give a sense of unimportance to the audience and indicate that this man is insignificant to the dream world. The fact the man approaching the character is wearing a mask (again covering facial features) gives the clip an even more uneasy feel.
Overall then I feel this clip is very useful in giving my group ideas for our dream sequence. The slow camera movement and slow transitions can serve as a disorientating technique, whilst incorporating the whole of the scene. This has also given us ideas on how lighting can dramatically affect the feel and emotion of a film.
A2 production 07/10/10
In media today we decided filming our original documentary idea of different sleep patterns would be far too hard. The reason behind this was due to inconveniences involved (shown in the previous post)
The sleep patterns we were originally looking at doing can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleeping#Comparison_of_sleep_patterns
We have therefore decided to do a live action short film, involving elements of animation. We are yet to decide on a story however looking into films that use the same style of filming such as:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paHSFXQfL5E
This has been useful in giving us ideas about how to shoot the film and we have considered filming a dream sequence.
This Alfred Hitchcock film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzxlbgPkxHE&feature=related also shows us how to use transitions to recreate a dream.
The sleep patterns we were originally looking at doing can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleeping#Comparison_of_sleep_patterns
We have therefore decided to do a live action short film, involving elements of animation. We are yet to decide on a story however looking into films that use the same style of filming such as:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paHSFXQfL5E
This has been useful in giving us ideas about how to shoot the film and we have considered filming a dream sequence.
This Alfred Hitchcock film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzxlbgPkxHE&feature=related also shows us how to use transitions to recreate a dream.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
6/10/2010
Today Lainey and I have discussed possible problems with creating our documentary on sleep deprivation. We have come up with the following:
- People may lie about when they have been sleeping and how long they have slept for
- Compiling all the footage from all the different DV tapes will take a long time
- Not all the volunteers will follow the same style of documentary
- Not sleeping can conflict with the need to do work, even in a half-term break.
For these reasons, we are now unsure about creating a documentary about sleep deprivation. We will discuss this further tomorrow
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
5/10/2010
Today I have been looking at different styles of documentaries and trying to incorporate elements of them all. Firstly I looked at 'Super Size Me' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N5i-0t8m94
I felt this was a good example to go by as the film revolves around the director, making himself the test subject. I also intend on doing that but with the help of others.
I also felt 'Super Size Me' was useful as it gets a professional's opinion on the subject of the documentary, I could also do this with all my volunteers. This however could be hard as doctors are often busy and may stop one of the volunteers from taking part.
'Super Size Me' also gave us the idea of a time scale to use, we have decided therefore that the half term coming up will be the best time to film our documentary.
Next I looked at the idea of having a documentary without words. I however felt this would be too hard to make, follow and edit. So I am planning on sticking with the idea of 'Super Size Me'.
I felt this was a good example to go by as the film revolves around the director, making himself the test subject. I also intend on doing that but with the help of others.
I also felt 'Super Size Me' was useful as it gets a professional's opinion on the subject of the documentary, I could also do this with all my volunteers. This however could be hard as doctors are often busy and may stop one of the volunteers from taking part.
'Super Size Me' also gave us the idea of a time scale to use, we have decided therefore that the half term coming up will be the best time to film our documentary.
Next I looked at the idea of having a documentary without words. I however felt this would be too hard to make, follow and edit. So I am planning on sticking with the idea of 'Super Size Me'.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
3/10/2010
Today I have asked numerous people if they will be willing to take part in my group's documentary. Everyone I have asked are of a similar age to me (17/18) and all follow the same routine of sleeping at night, for at least 6 hours. The majority of them have access to video cameras, this will make it easy for us to follow their progress, in an almost video diary way. The only possible problem with this will be supplying them with the correct DV tapes, as there are often quite expensive. We also have to make sure they follow what we ask them to do, for example sleep for 3 hours, stay awake for 2. This could be fairly tricky to do however we are confident in the people I have asked.
Saturday, 2 October 2010
2/10/2010
Today I have looked at different types of sleep patterns we could use in our documentary. I also found all the effects that sleep deprivation can have on the human body.
They can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation
Obviously we will not be willing to risk putting anyone in our documentary at harm. This therefore means if they need to stop, they are more than welcome to. This will serve as an interesting part to our documentary anyway.
They can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation
Obviously we will not be willing to risk putting anyone in our documentary at harm. This therefore means if they need to stop, they are more than welcome to. This will serve as an interesting part to our documentary anyway.
Friday, 17 September 2010
A2 Media Coursework Outline
We have discussed the structure for the year of the course, and we have been informed that we have a few choices. Out of these we do the main production and two of the three ancillary tasks.
A music video including a website for the band, a cover for its release as part of a digipak and a magazine advert for the digipak.
A package for a new TV soap opera this will include a production of the TV trailer, a magazine front cover featuring the soap, a hyperlinked webpage for the soap opera and a poster for the soap.
A short film that will last 5 minutes, it can be either animated, live action or both. This will include a poster for the film, a radio trailer for the film and a film magazine page reviewing the film.
Of these, I am not yet sure which I prefer to make, but I like the look of the short film option. The reason I am more interested in this is due to the film being open to more opportunities, this will allow me to do a documentary which appeals to me quite a lot. It appeals to me as it will allow me to explore documentaries I view more and understand how they are made.
We have to work in groups of no more than four; I however have chosen to work in a group of three as I feel the ideas for the short film will be more refined.
A music video including a website for the band, a cover for its release as part of a digipak and a magazine advert for the digipak.
A package for a new TV soap opera this will include a production of the TV trailer, a magazine front cover featuring the soap, a hyperlinked webpage for the soap opera and a poster for the soap.
A short film that will last 5 minutes, it can be either animated, live action or both. This will include a poster for the film, a radio trailer for the film and a film magazine page reviewing the film.
Of these, I am not yet sure which I prefer to make, but I like the look of the short film option. The reason I am more interested in this is due to the film being open to more opportunities, this will allow me to do a documentary which appeals to me quite a lot. It appeals to me as it will allow me to explore documentaries I view more and understand how they are made.
We have to work in groups of no more than four; I however have chosen to work in a group of three as I feel the ideas for the short film will be more refined.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)