Coursework - three existing professional films

coursework; our coursework task is to create an original music video or short film.
when planning and preparing ourselves for the coursework we are going to undertake in a couple of weeks, my class and I watched three 2 minute openings to films, all of which were different in there own ways.

 

Amores Perros

an overview of the film;

A horrific car accident connects three stories, each involving characters dealing with loss, regret, and life's harsh realities, all in the name of love.

I haven't seen this film before, and so when we were researching feature films, out teacher have us this one to look at. 

Looking at the opening of Amores Perros, the audience are straight away thrown into a chaotic car chase, with two characters shown – possibly the main characters. Within the back of the car there is a dog which is bleeding out, which automatically leaves the audience with a million and one questions.

I personally think that the opening two minutes of the film is very effective as it makes the audience want to carry on watching. There is no music within the first two minutes however there is fast dialogue in Spanish with English subtitles which ultimately leads to the crash. There aren’t any credits in this opening, perhaps the audience will be focusing on reading the subtitles that quickly appear.

The location appears to be in a large city, most possibly in a Spanish speaking country but there is no indications of whereabouts.

Within the opening, there is a variety of different camera shots and angles from within the car and out.

Compares to the opening of Juno, much more is revealed in the opening two minutes of Amores Perros, perhaps due to the genre of the film.

Juno 

An overview of the film;

Juno is a 2007 American comedy-drama independent film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her.

The opening two minutes of Juno is very unique and intriguing as it is portrayed in an animation, where the picture still remains looking a little like live action film as we see a character, presumably Juno, as a sketch, with the background more like a cartoon. The plot starts by a character (presumably the main character) walking around the area (several locations but all in a seemingly close area e.g. Probably a town) and carries on after the opening into a live action film. Also, within the opening two minutes only the lead actor is shown, no other characters, which could ultimately suggest her independence and loneliness.  There is an upbeat song played within the opening two minutes of the film which fits the film well, and sets a good mood for the rest of the film. The credits are displayed throughout the opening, often portrayed as signs and are created in an animation hand writing style to fit with the opening. however, there is no dialogue. ­­­­­­

Forrest Gump

An overview of the film;

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, a slow-witted but kind-hearted, good-natured and athletically prodigious man from Alabama who witnesses, and in some cases influences, some of the defining events of the latter half of the 20th century in the United States; more specifically, the period between Forrest's birth in 1944 and 1982. The film differs substantially from Winston Groom's novel, including Gump's personality and several events that were depicted.

When watching the opening, I personally think that not much of the plot is introduced but the audience can guess certain elements in the film, just from these opening two minutes. The credits, are shown in white text which are clearly visible however, not too dominant. The feather moves towards the names on the screen to draw focus. This draws attention as the feather is the only individually moving object the screen. As well as keeping focus on the feather, the high angled shots allow us to get a glimpse of the location, a large town, which seems bleak in comparison to the delicate and light feather. A character is introduced (perhaps the main character) picks up the feather whereas other ignored it, this may suggest that he is different to the rest of the society.

Together with his appearance (with the exception of his shoes) the props are a tidy and neat suitcase suggesting he may be off to work but also that he appreciates and takes good care of his belongings. There is no dialogue in the opening two minutes, yet I believe we can already say a lot about the character. For example, his shoes are extremely muddy, whereas the rest of his clothing is extremely smart and presentable indicating that they usually are very clean and tidy, and that his muddy shoes have something to do with the plot. The opening ends with a bus stopping in front of the character that we assume is Forrest, which could be seen as an effective way of leading the audience on to the rest of the film, as we join the character on his journey.

Coursework - Our stop motion animation

Stop Motion Animation;  

Nemo animation

Our task was to create an animation - We were told to think of a short storyline which included scenery and characters.  We were given  play'doh and plasticine and a few other craft bits to help us make our setting, characters and props. 

We firstly brainstormed storylines on what we could do our animation on, including the ideas of sunsets, machinery,  jungle with a variety of different animals in but we finally settled on the idea of an ocean with a few simple fish, a sun and a boat and a plane. This developed into taking the characters out of 'Finding Nemo' and 'Finding Dory' to use in our own animation as the fishes, whilst including a sun with glasses, an areoplane and a boat. These characters and props where all created by moulding Play-Doh in just half an hour and stuck on the paper plate. Once we had figured out our plot an what equipment was going where (for example the characters and props), we put the camera on the tripod and fixed it into position so we could start taking photographs. Lily and myself where in charge of arranging the play-doh on the plate whilst megan takes the photographs. Overall, my group and i reckon that we atlas took around 150 photos for the animation before putting it together on the software premiere pro. 

I personally really enjoyed doing this stop animation as i had never created my first stop motion animation, and hopefully not my last. Despite the fact it took a lot of patience, time and dedication in this short animation, i loved working towards the final video. I think these skills and shots could be combined into our upcoming coursework, however i know not all films as it would be unrealistic considering the time you need to spend on it. 

Before working on this animation we were told, for homework, to look at and research previous animations that had been made. For example we looked at Jan Svankmajer and Wallace and Gromit. I personally found Svankmajer's work very unusual and weird but creative and effective at the same time. I have a lot of admiration for Wallace and Gromit as i know how much time and effort goes into a stop motion, and considering their films are about 1 hour 30 to 2 hours, it must have taken around 3 years. Conversely ours was just 7-8 seconds long which took 1 hour 30 to create. 



  When set the task, I instantly wanted to create something that included fish swimming in the ocean. I had seen  an animation similar to what I wanted to create, previously to this task and was really inspired to  make something alike. Once I had created a plot, I thought it would be wise to use the classic characters of Nemo and Dory from finding Nemo and finding Dory. 

to my animation i moulded play-doh to make ocean like features, for example the fish, the see, the boats and the sun/sky. Once I had finished moulding the characters and props, I then started to take photos to ultimately make our film animation.

Big Fish

Big Fish

On the 29th of September (Last Thursday) we watched tim burtons 2003 Big Fish. Big fish is an american fantasy drama film. 

Background info on the film;

He film was directed by Tim Burton and stars Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, and Marion Cotillard. Other roles are performed by Helena Bonham Carter, Matthew McGrory, and Danny DeVito among others. Edward Bloom (Finney), a former traveling salesman in the Southern United States with a gift for storytelling, is now confined to his deathbed. Will (Crudup), his estranged son, attempts to mend their relationship as Bloom relates tall tales of his eventful life as a young adult (portrayed by Ewan McGregor in the flashback scenes).

our task; 

My class' task was to watch the film and then write/discuss about a list we were provided. I chose the options truth, lies and exaggeration as i personally believe these were key during the duration of the film as the film itself was all about exaggeration and storytelling. 

The film itself is based on Edward Bloom exaggerating all his storytelling that he is telling his son Will. The storytelling ultimately infuriates Will so much that he continuously argues with his dying father explaining he does not believe in what he is saying, however in the end will soon realizes that exaggerating stories actually improves them. It makes boring everyday seem much more fun and exciting.

This confusion between the truth and lies is something that continues throughout the entire film. At first the viewer believes the stories they hear to be a true account to what actually happened, but as the film goes on they soon begin to become more hesitant of the honesty within them. This foreshadows when Will was younger as he started off believing his father, however when Will started to age he soon realized that the stories his father was telling him may not all be true. The film makes the viewers go through a similar journey to wWill, as they start off believing Edward Bloom, however towards the middle section of the film viewers may/probably will become doubtful (just like Will). This ultimately leads Will to become distrustful in his father, where he eventually gives up trying with him.

Preliminary film task

Preliminary film task

on Thursday last week, completed out preliminary film task:

out preliminary film task involved filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. we demonstrated several filming shots such as; match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

Definition of match on action;

the definition; Cutting on action or matching on action refers to film editing and video editing techniques where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action. A common example is a man walking up to a door and reaching for the knob. 
we used the match on action technique to film a character walking into the room. 

definition of shot reverse shot; 

the definition; Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.
the rest of the group and i didn't use shot/reverse shot correctly as we only shot the first character, then changed the angel to focus on the second character. However we then did not change the camera angel back to the first character. 

180-degree rule;

definition; the 180 degree rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. when the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes (what is called) a reverse angel. 

How i found the process/what would i do to improve if i were to do it again;

When set the task (to film shot clip) which had to include the three shot techniques (which are shown above) was proven rather difficult, considering i have never used a filming camera before. Moreover it was also rather challenging that we had to include the three techniques above, As i have also never heard of those before. However when in the process of completing the short clip, It was a good experience and it has also allowed me to get some knowledge on the filming industry. 

If i were to improve my preliminary task i would research in detail what techniques i had to use - for example i would research match on action, shot/reverse shot and 180-degree rule. as i have said previously i would also research how to achieve the best possible outcome using these specific techniques. Moreover i would also make a script so the actors within the film knew exactly what they were doing.