Evaluation of the Main Task

For the main task I had to create an intro to a film that was to last approximately two minutes. I decided to give myself a production name, ‘Laur Productions’, because it’s the beginning of my first name. I was inspired to make an action-adventure fantasy film about pirates and ninjas because of debates, with my friends, about which is better. For the cast I had Darren Stapleton and myself who were pirates and Connor Laurie, Tom High and Jonny Ellis who were ninjas. We needed to have something that the two rivals were fighting for, instead of just mindless fighting so I chose to have a special stone. The stone is called “the stone of eternal life” and contains power to keep the group who hold it alive forever and immune from pain. I did some research for a symbol to put on the stone. A phoenix represents immortality and I thought this would be perfect for the stone and it fits in with the fantasy of the film. To edit my film I used video editing software called Premiere Pro. The location I chose for my film is Catton Park in Old Catton, Norwich. I looked at some micro elements for action-adventure fantasy films such as ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and noticed that some tense, affective chase scenes are based in woodland/field areas so I wanted to do the same. Also I needed a place for the Ninjas to hide as they are arguing over who keeps the stone, I originally wanted to have a secret base for them and film it in a shed but I were not able to gain access to a shed so I changed it so they were hidden deep in a forest. I did my best to maintain continuity in my film; I filmed in the correct order following the script. But unfortunately I had to re-film twice because of lighting difficulties this is because during my first time filming it got dark too quickly, I were filming in the afternoon and it was getting dark by 3:30 because of the time of the year, which was November. The next two times I filmed I planned my time better, I filmed earlier in the day and the lighting was perfect. But this became a problem whilst editing because of the lighting in the different shots was too different. I tried to edit the brightness and contrast but this made the quality of the film very bad, the colours were dull and because the original footage was dark everything was blending in with each other. I decided to swap the end and the beginning around so instead of having the dialogue then the chase it was vice versa but in the middle there is a black out and it then says “earlier that day”, this is so it shows the audience a flash back of how this chase was evolved, this turned out very well. There is hardly any dialogue in this film so it’s hard to decide on what the language I used was but if I were to give it a language I would say it would be modern and childish because I used sentences like “that‘s no fair“ that was said with a winy tone. If I were to use the language at the time it would be a completely different language all together that no one would understand. I made a few mistakes, first of all with the different lighting whilst filming at different times. I also made the mistake of using different cameras whilst filming at different times, I used two wide screen cameras and one that wasn’t wide screen, this made a problem when it came to editing because the screen sizes were different, to solve this I had to change the size of the screen on the editing screen. Unfortunately I had lack of technical support due to the technician’s illness, so I had to learn by ourselves how to use the programme. If I were to do this again I’d make sure I film it all in one day preferably in the morning so it doesn’t get dark too quickly, this will also save time with editing and keep the continuity. Also, if I had to re-film, make sure I use the same camera as before so it doesn’t cause difficulties for editing. I think I have improved from making errors in the preliminary exercise because you can hear the music better, it was better planned, the location suited to the plot. Although I made the same mistake by not taking multiple shots in case of errors whilst editing, for example because of the problem with the screen sizes you cant see me and Connor standing both sides of the screen and instead you see us run along then Connor stopping and not me. I followed the storyboard as much as I could but I had difficulties with some of it. I had a third member in my group but due to his lack of punctuation I gave him a small part in my storyboard. Unfortunately he stopped attending lessons and we couldn’t get in contact with him so I cancelled him out. I had to change the location for when you see the Ninjas arguing, I originally wanted them to have a secret base and film it in a shed but I were not able to gain access to a shed so I changed it so they were hidden deep in a forest. There is one part of the storyboard where I am supposed to trip over a log, but due to lack of lighting I had to abandon this. That caused a problem with the length of my film so I filmed more of the chase where Connor hits Tom with the nun-chucks, this was changed from an accident to Connor doing this on purpose so he could get the stone for himself. Also I filmed extra bits for the build up before I all attacked each other. The genre for this film is action/adventure fantasy. I think what I have done is typical for the genre because there does tend to be a chase scene in these sort of movies, such as in ‘Indiana Jones – Temple of the Crystal Skull’ there’s a chase with jeeps driving through a jungle and to make it even more tense there’s a sword fight on top of the moving jeeps. For my chase I wanted to make it not as outrages than Indiana Jones and keep it simple so it’s more realistic and believable. There are also fight scenes in action/adventure movies, I did follow this but the all of the fight was shown, because I only had to film the two minutes into the film, I wanted to make it so the audience want to watch more and by doing this I showed the characters starting their fights then ending with the title of the movie. If I were to continue to film after the title of the movie is shown I’d have it go straight into the fights but with close ups of their weapons, faces and injuries at first so the audience can’t see completely what’s happening and creates tension and suspense. My film had no elements of deliberate pastiche or parody from other movies or historical events because this didn’t fit with the genre. I chose not to do this because I wanted to create my own material. I wanted to create suspense and confusing for the audience at the beginning of the film, because the film starts with the chase the audience doesn’t know why it is happening. I also flicked from one chase the other to create suspense. With the dialogue I wanted to create tension and comedy for the audience, I had the characters arguing and for comedy I added childish comments like from when Tom says “Just because you are the tallest out of us doesn’t mean you have to be the most trustworthy, remember what happened in Egypt? In the Pharaoh’s tomb?” I did this to show that Toms’ character isn’t as mature as the other two.

The Script (edited to the end result of the film)

(Mid shot of Darren running towards Lauren. Behind shoulder shot of Darren)

Lauren: Did you get it?

Darren: Eye

Lauren: Let’s go

(Behind shot of Lauren and Darren running off in different directions. Then the same shot but with Jonny running to where Darren went and Connor and Tom running to where Lauren went.)

Jonny: Look! Points in front of him

Connor: Which one has it?

Tom: I don’t know!

(Long shot of Connor and Tom running and Tom takes over Connor. Mid-shot of Darren hiding behind a tree as Jonny run past. There’s a mid side shot of Connor about to hit Tom then it cuts to a mid-shot of Jonny stopping then a close up of him turning around slowly. Then the camera changes to a mid-shot of Tom falling as Connor runs past.)

(Long shot of Lauren running then stopping, and Connor following then stopping. Mid-shot of Jonny preparing to fight with his fists, then a close up pan on Darren’s face to his sword. Then there’s a zoom out from a close up on Connor’s face to see him holding his nun-chucks, and a close up pan on Lauren’s sword to her face.)

(Extreme close up on Jonny’s eyes then on Darren’s eyes. Also a extreme shot on Lauren’s then Connor’s eyes. Long shot of one of the couples facing each other, then the other. Quick long shot of Darren and Jonny running towards each other about to strike one another. Also a quick long shot of Lauren and Connor running towards each other about to strike one another.)

(Text on screen fades in and then out, “Earlier that day” )

(The ninjas are hidden, deep in the woods.)

Connor: Since I am the leader I think I should look after the stone of eternal life

Jonny: Well I think I’m more reliable than you to look after such a precious artifact

Tom: Just because you are the tallest out of us doesn’t mean you have to be the most trustworthy, remember what happened in Egypt? In the Pharaoh's tomb?

Jonny: That was a misunderstanding!

Connor: Quiet, the both of you! You two do realize the consequences of breaking this stone; an unforgiving curse will be unleashed upon your souls!

Tom: And where did you get that from?

Connor: It’s a well known legend, passed down my fore fathers.

Jonny: I never heard of this “well known legend”

Tom: Yeah, you’re just trying to scare us!

Connor: You will listen to me and understand that I need to keep this stone in my possession

(Darren sneaks through the trees reaches for the Stone, grabs it and flees. Jonny and Tom argue over each other)

Jonny: But that means we won’t have eternal life, and you’ll live for eternity doing great things-

Tom: That’s not fair, just because you’re the leader doesn’t mean that you have to keep all the good stuff -

Connor: (Shouts over the other two) Shut up! (Jonny and Tom turn silent) the stone is missing!

(Long shot from in the trees where Darren was on all three, Tom and Jonny gasp and all three run through the tress towards the camera to follow Darren.)

Pirates, Ninjas & the Stone

I've created a youtube account just for my media work, so now I have 'Pirates, Ninjas & the Stone' up there and I can upload my preliminary task on there as well.

Editing

The brightness from the second time filming is great, although it is brighter than the dialogue from the first shoot. So I thought it would be a great idea to switch the scenes apart and make it post-modern by starting the film with the chase, then finding out why they are all running with the dialogue earlier that day. Also I can have this based in the early hours of the morning, where the sun is rising.

The music I have chosen is from http://freeplaymusic.com/ it's called "Stadium" composed by Vincent Varco. I chose this because it is dark and and has a action/adventurous feeling to it.

All I need to do now is get this on a disc, take it home and upload it to youtube (because it's blocked from the school computers), then display it on here!

Re-shoot!

Today was a good day to film because we had no lessons. At noon I shot Darren and Jonny's fight scene again, then when Tom and Connor came later that day we filmed all the chase scene and mine and Connor's fight scene. I didn't re-shoot the dialogue again because I thought that looked good.

Such a Rush!

Yesterday I filmed after school, because it was when my actors where all available. The begining with the dialogue was great but it got dark quickly and as I thought the footage it too dark, there is an obviouse difference with the brightness of the footage from the beginging to the end, I have tried brightening it but it looks unrealistic because the colours don't really fit with the setting. So I will have to re-film it.